


But I Don't Want to Be a Hero!

by shigeka



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: A lot of kissing, A lot of minor crossovers with various manga novel or game, But I might change my mind later, Canon-Typical Violence, Female Harry Potter, Gen, Kissing, No Bashing!!!!, No Romance, Reincarnation, Some blood and violence but not much, To reference Ryouka's other previous lives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-05-27 07:17:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 44,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15019487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shigeka/pseuds/shigeka
Summary: Ibuki Ryouka behaved unlike the usual children would behave. She was quiet and expressionless, composed and mature, and she possessed knowledge that far greater than what she should have known at her age. Why, you ask? For she was the 27th reincarnation of the great hero once known as Harry Potter!





	1. No. 1  Easy Life

**Author's Note:**

> I binge-read Boku no Hero Academia when I was having trouble writing Eine Kleine’s chapter 8 and this idea popped in my head. This story is first posted on FFnet and I wasn’t sure if I should post this here on AO3, but here I am after all!
> 
> One thing before you read, I ask that you please, **_please_** don’t take this story too seriously! This story was originally meant to be somewhat of a crack fic, even though now it grew a more serious plot the first two chapters are not meant to be taken seriously. 
> 
> Also, this is not a story where Harry have a super and/or godlike power. More lives here = more knowledge, not raw power. If you’re fine with this, then I hope you enjoy!

Ibuki Ryouka behaved unlike the usual children would behave.

She was quiet and expressionless, composed and mature, and she possessed knowledge that far greater than what she should have known at her age. Her parents were baffled by her behavior, but in a world filled with people possessing weird and unique Quirks, they decided that their daughter was just one of the special ones and thought nothing of it.

While it was true that Ryouka was a special one, it was not because of her Quirk. She actually possessed a normal one, albeit quite rare, that was a healing power in the form of her breath. No, she was special because she was the 27th reincarnation of the great hero of another world, once known as Harry Potter!

Her composure and maturity was actually not what they seemed, for they were actually the manifestation of her  _jaded and tired soul_  that would like nothing to do with the world ever again! Why, you ask? Because each time she was reborn, it was always for a great purpose like vanquishing dark lords, stopping a war, saving the world, and the likes and she was tired of it! She grew tired after the 20th time she got reborn! There was only so much that a person can take before she got tired of it, damnit!!!

Okay, she realized that wherever she got reborn to, her magic always followed her and that's why the people sometimes ended up seen her as a symbol of hope and salvation in her previous lives, but here, in this world, everyone had that power. Quirks, as the people of this world called that power, was something that almost everyone had. Each Quirks are unique and strong in their own right, so Ryouka thought that _'this time, there was no reason for me to get involved!'_ and decided to sit back and enjoy the show.

Let others do the flashy save-the-world thing—she's going to have an easy life from here on and hoped that when she kicked the bucket again she'll just stay dead like everyone else did.

That was the reason why when each and every one of her classmates were striving for U.A. and other hero academies, she decided not to follow in the trends of becoming a Hero and applied to a normal high school like the unambitious hag that she was.

"But, Ibuki-san, with your Quirk, you could have saved many lives!" Everyone asked her, and she would always answered them flatly, "I know, but too bad I wanted to be a novelist."

Right. It wouldn't do if any of those so-called Villains noticed her weird-power-that-was-not-a-quirk and decided to recruit her. Or stole her power. Or something.

She was almost 100% sure that somewhere out there exist a Quirk that could stole other people's power. She have like, more than 100 years of experience as a closet  _Amecomi_  and manga reader to be able to make that prediction and be sure of it, that's why she promised that she would lay low and never use her magic or her Quirk in front of anyone. Even if she was obliged to register her Quirk, with time, everyone will forget that she existed at one point. Yes, her plans are fool proof.

And, why a novelist, you ask? It's because this was an easy way to earn money! She got a lot of interesting tales to tell from her previous lives that could be put into words and sold to the masses. In fact, she had done this a few times before, and her "Harry Potter" series was a big hit at one point in one of her previous life. For someone who was aiming for an easy life, this occupation was the best for them.

You must have thought that, "wow, this how could Harry, the great savior of the wizarding world, could be reduced to this sleazebag" by now, right? But you don't understand what she felt! No  _you don't_!!

The first few times she had been reborn  _might_  have been a bit fun amidst all the confusion and her efforts to 'solve the mystery' of her being reborn again and again, but after the 15th time, she was just too tired and bored to even care about these things. She didn't even kicked a fuss over being born as a girl again this time, because she had been born as a girl for far too many times for her to feel annoyed over it anymore! She was just that jaded!  _Jaded_!!!

So, okay. By now you have realized that Ryouka was not as mature and composed as she appeared to be on the outside. In fact, because she lived too much, she was actually very prone to little outburst and temper tantrum just like a little child, but she was forcing herself to be expressionless and quiet so that people wouldn't notice her and she could have her easy life. Of course—

"Watch out!"

Ryouka glanced towards the road where a car was going out of control and—ah, it hit a person. That was really gruesome,  _ew_. Not her problem though, she was late for school already. Yeah, so she started to walk again, determinedly ignoring the panicking voices of the people around her.

"Oh my god, he's being crushed, is there someone with a strengthening-type Quirk? Please lift the car! He won't make it if we wait for the heroes to come!"

Yeah, not her problem.

"Is the driver okay?"

Totally not her problem.

"The poor guy is losing too much blood! Is the ambulance still not here yet?"

Not her problem...

"Hiroto! No, hold on! You can make it...! Please...!"

Not her...

"Papa! Papa don't die, please...! Don't leave Mari...!"

Oh, goddamnit.

Ryouka turned on her heels and began to run towards the commotion, cursing her hero complex all the way there. She had been walking away quite far from the scene just now, so it took her almost 30 seconds before she reached the place.

When she arrived, she saw that the car had been pulled out of the man by a bear-like person (the guy literally look like a bear though, holy shit) and everyone was hovering near the near-hysterical wife and her crying daughter not knowing what to do to save the dying man. Inwardly cringing, Ryouka tapped the wife's shoulder to catch her attention.

"I need permission to heal your husband," she told the crying woman whose eyes sparkled with hope as the words finally registered to her head. Ryouka fought the urge to  _visibly cringe_  because wow, that look she was giving her was giving her a goddamn _war flashback_.

"Y-you can do it? Y-you can save Hiroto?" The wife asked her, voice shaking all over. Ryouka shrugged and nodded at her.

"Yes, but you might not like how I do it," she said lowly, making sure that the woman understand her words, but the woman just clasped her hands and shook her head at her.

"I don't care how, please save him! I beg you!" The woman cried and Ryouka almost cringe again.

 _Alright. Don't say I didn't warn you_ , she thought as she pulled her hands back from the woman's surprisingly tight grip. Without further ado, Ryouka straddled the dying man's body and took a deep breath, ignoring the strange noises the wife were making and pressed her lips onto the dying man's before she breathed out slowly, releasing her power onto the dying man's body.

Before the spectator's very eyes, the now-not-dying man's body began to mend itself. His muscles knitted themselves in seconds and his wounds closed before their very eyes, and then not even 10 seconds later, the man had regain consciousness.

"Mm...  _mmmfff_?!" The man said and, oh that's right. She hadn't removed her lips yet.

With a final blow of air to the man's lungs (for good measure), Ryouka pulled away and wiped her lips with her uniform sleeve. 

 _Ew, blood_ , she thought as she wiped her tongue also on her sleeves.

She looked down on the man who was blushing up to his ears and with deadpan expression on her face, she got up and brushed her skirt which was thankfully clean because they were so short it should have been illegal (but apparently not). Her knee-high socks and shoes unfortunately didn't share the same fate as they were drenched by  _blood_. It was disgusting.

Not waiting for a reaction from the wife or the man or anyone, Ryouka walked away from the scene, rubbing the couple's kid's head on the way because that kid was the only reason she even bothered to do this when she was already late for school, leaving bloody footprints in her wake.

"W-wait, how can I thank you?" The wife's voice called out to her as she walked away, and coolly, without any expression on her face, Ryouka said to her, "By not holding me back. I'm already late for school," and continued to walk on, leaving everyone present  _love-struck_  by the cool sight of her back, not knowing that a certain old lady was smiling up at her from amongst the masses.

Ryouka didn't know then, but that day, her dream of having-a-life-so-easy-she-wouldn't-have-to-lift-a-finger was crushed in a single moment because of the hero complex that she didn't manage to curb in all her 27 lives.

Too bad for her she made a huge blunder.

**No. 1 Easy Life – End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 【息吹】Ibuki used the character for breath and blow, while【涼佳】Ryouka used the character for refreshing/cool and beautiful/excellent. I picked this name with her Quirk in mind. I was going to use【癒夢】Yume (character for healing and dream) but Ryouka sounds prettier so there.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	2. No. 2  Recovery Girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s the second chapter! Hope you enjoy this one too. There’s a few notes at the end that I think will clarify some things so I hope you read them too.

The first time Ryouka found out about her Quirk was when she was in 5th grade in elementary school.

Oh, she knew she had a Quirk since she was 3 years old, but she didn't know what it was since the activation for her Quirk was a bit more specific than most other Quirks.

Ryouka was born with dark hair like her parents, and when her Quirk manifested suddenly her dark brown locks turned pure white. Physical changes was a common thing during the manifestation of a Quirk, so when this happened her parents are overjoyed. Ryouka, who wanted a boring life, was not.

She was glad that that seemed to be all though. When her Quirk first manifested, she tried to find out what it was, but no matter what she did it just wouldn't activate, so Ryouka had thought that her Quirk was just a strange one-time hair color change or something and put it out of her mind for a long time.

That was until  _that_ happened.

She didn't know if it was a blessing or not, but Ryouka was one of the prettiest girl in her school—especially because her white hair demanded so much attention because of its rareness in her school, and thus, many of the boys were always vying for her attention.

Tough luck for them, Ryouka was not interested in  _children_ since that would be just wrong—she was like  _ancient_ compared to them, after all, but yeah. All the boys (younger, same age, or even a few years older than her) decided they wanted to be her  _boyfriend_ or something.

It might not be that bad if they only want and admire her from afar, but the problem was  _they wanted her so bad that they held a fighting tournament to win her over_.

Ryouka wasn't one to socialize often with her peers (especially since all of them were childish and she was, again,  _ancient_ and didn’t have the patience to deal with their shits), so she didn't find out about the stupid tournament until it was too late and a  _victor_ had been found.

Apparently, the winner got the right to kiss her. It was both ridiculous and appalling that they decided this…  _prize_ without even considering that she'll agree to it or not, but well, they're children. Children did stupid things all the time, so it was kind of understandable.

Not that Ryouka would let that slide without consequences.

As the tournament allowed the use of Quirks, the  _victor_ —a boy from 6th grade—approached her in bruises, cuts, minor burns, and an entirely too smug face. Imagine everyone's surprise when his injuries disappeared before their eyes when he literally stole her breath as he kissed her.

After Ryouka recovered from the shock of being suddenly kissed, she returned the injuries ten times of what she healed to that boy and ever since then, everyone stayed clear of her, afraid of being beaten up because when she was angry, she didn't hold back at all even to children.

Horrible as it may be, that incident was what made her aware of her Quirk initially. Everyone praised her power and told her that she'd be a great Hero— _maybe even greater than Recovery Girl!—_ but Ryouka didn't want to be one. So to avoid similar incident from happening again, Ryouka tried her best to be as inconspicuous as she could growing up.

She kept an average grade in class (which greatly confused her parents since they knew just how intelligent she was), never got into trouble with her teachers or fellow students, kept to herself so that no one  _really knew her_ , didn't wear make-up to avoid catching someone's attention, wore thick glasses (a fake one, because she got good genes this time from her parents) and kept her hair long and messy to hide her face, wore unflattering baggy sweater all the time, and she  _never_   _ever_  used her Quirk when people could see her.

In other words, she was someone you'd glance over and ignore when you pass her at the street. She was just that inconspicuous.

There was nothing special about her if you didn't count on her snow-colored hair, but even her strange hair color was considered somewhat normal in this world, so really, people had never had a reason to notice or even  _approach_  her before.

Up until  _now_ , that is.

 

 

 

That week had been a terrible week so far for Ryouka.

First was that accident which forced her to use her Quirk in public and caused blood to dirty her face and uniform. After that, because people kept sending her bloodied uniform a  _look_  and it made her very uncomfortable, she was forced to go to a narrow, dark alley to use her other power (the magical one) to clean herself up.

Not only that, when Ryouka went back to her home, she found her parents missing with a note in the dining room telling her that her happy-go-lucky and somewhat airheaded parents had gone on  _another_ honeymoon trip, this time to the African wilderness or something  _without even bothering to tell her in person._

Okay, that one was not that bad since Ryouka  _did_ love the freedom of living alone, but they could at least tell her first before even planning for the trip. It helped that they left her a large sum of money so that she could survive the month alone, but their action still managed to tick Ryouka's temper a bit.

That was just the first day though.

After that, somehow or another accidents just popped out all around her and, damn her hero complex, Ryouka cannot bring it in herself to abandon any of the victims.

The second accident was a burning building and Ryouka had to heal three victims with third-degree burns all over their body. Kissing someone reeking of burning flesh was not something that she would like to experience ever again, thank you. She thought she was going to throw up in their mouth.

The next one was another car-related accident where somehow, Ryouka managed to attach a woman's severed arm back to the rest of her body. Honestly, even during Voldemort's reign of terror, Harry had never seen so much gore and blood. This universe was horrifying.

The last one was a Hero-Villain fight that not only injured over 100 civillians and causing her to exhaust herself almost to unconsciousness, but also  _destroyed part of her home_ and forced her to live in some hotel while the construction workers are fixing it _._

She already sued Mount Lady for  _that_  damage, but the damage to her reputation as an aloof and uncaring person was not something so easily fixed by money.

People already begun to talk about a white-haired  _angel_  who was always ready to help people whenever there was an accident and it was making Ryouka almost crazy since the rumor was threatening her lifelong dream of a  _danger-free, action-free, and carefree_  life.

As if that wasn't bad enough, all week, Ryouka had felt someone constantly following her movements. Which made her really unsettled, because every time she looked over her shoulder, the presence that had been following her would disappear.

Ryouka swore if it was some villain looking forward to kidnapping her or something, she would actually beat their ass so hard they won't be able to take a shit for  _months_.

The presence hadn't been doing anything besides following her around though, so Ryouka had hoped that they would get bored and leaver her on their own, but no such luck apparently.

Because right now, the perpetrator was sitting in front of Ryouka.

 

 

 

It was with wariness that Ryouka watched as the tiny old woman in front of her calmly sipped her green tea. The old woman set her cup on the table and smiled kindly at Ryouka, but Ryouka swore that she could  _smell_  the evil plot that was brewing inside this tiny, harmless-looking woman's little head.

Ryouka honestly didn't know how the hell she got into this situation.

The old woman was waiting for her in front of her school building after school that day and Ryouka had been alarmed at first since the old woman's energy and the energy that had been following her around for the past few days were one and the same, but somehow the old woman managed to manipulate Ryouka into agreeing to give her some of her time. That was why she was currently sitting in this quaint little café with the old lady in the seat right front of her, but she was starting to regret her decision.

Ryouka kept her face mild to the best of her ability so that this tiny predator in front of her couldn't sense her wariness, but she could tell that the woman was not buying it.

How scary.

"My name is Chiyo Shuuzenji." The woman introduced herself at last. Ryouka forcibly kept her face from showing any kind of emotion as she responded to the old woman's introduction.

"And?" She asked, and the old lady smiled kindly at her.

"You've never heard of me, Ibuki-chan? I am a Pro Hero under the name of  _Youthful Heroine Recovery Girl_. Everyone usually call me Recovery Girl though,” the old lady explained patiently to her, and Ryouka narrowed her eyes at the old Hero.

"I've never heard of you before." Which was a blatant lie, but Recovery Girl didn't seem like she noticed it. She didn't know why the Hero was here, talking to her like this, but she had a bad feeling about it. "Why are you here? Don't you Pro Heroes have anything better to do?"

"I'm currently off active duty so I'm fine being here right now," Recovery Girl said as she sipped her tea again.

"Is that so?" Ryouka replied back, keeping her voice level. She closed her eyes and adjusted her glasses before she sipped at her own drink. "Well, I'm sorry to tell you this, but unlike you, I don't have much time. I've got homework to do, so why don't you tell me what it is that you want from me, Recovery Girl?"

"My, you're so cold, Ibuki-chan." Recovery Girl said before laughing the stereotypical Japanese-old-lady-hohoho-laugh. "Well, as you can see, I am getting quite old, Ibuki-chan. Even though I still feel as youthful as when I debuted as a Pro Hero, sooner or later I will have to retire, that's why…"

She stopped for a dramatic second before continuing in a cheerful manner:

"I want you to be my apprentice!"

_What._

When the words finally registered in her brain, Ryouka forced a small smile onto her face and bowed at the old Hero.

"I apologize for wasting your time, but I can't be your apprentice." She said, trying to hide a grimace as she tidied up her belongings.  _I need to get out of there fast,_ she thought. "I don't want to be a Hero. I'm quite happy with my life right now."

"But you have the potential to be a great Hero, Ibuki-chan." Recovery girl insisted. "I saw what you did this past week, ever since the first car accident. I was really touched. You saved that man's life when he was in the brink of death."

_What are you, a stalker?_

"I didn't want to save him though—I didn't even want to get involved. I was ready to walk away." Ryouka said primly with a small frown between her eyebrows. "I'm not the Hero material you're seeking for."

Recovery Girl smiled at her then. It was a secretive smile, like she knew something Ryouka don't, and it was making her feel on edge.

"But you still came back and saved that man's life."

"Not because I wanted to." Ryouka insisted. "I just can't stand crying children."

"And the other accidents? There were no crying children there, and you still saved all those people." The old lady smiled at her, and Ryouka felt her face twitch in annoyance.

"That was…"  _Dammit, she didn't have an excuse ready for that._

Recovery Girl looked like she had won and wore a serene smile as she continued to talk.

"Ibuki-chan… our job as Heroes aren't just to fight villains, you know? To make people smile and to stop their tears—they're our job too." Recovery Girl said gently, reaching out a hand to cup hers. "That's why, when I saw you running to save that man so that his little girl will stop crying, I think you'd be perfect for this job. The other incidents has served to convince me even more of that fact."

Recovery Girl paused again before she squeezed Ryouka's hands in hers.

"There's a great Hero inside you, Ibuki-chan."

Recovery girl continued, looking up at her with sincere and hopeful eyes that was actually really scary because she could see  _that_  glint in her eyes.

_Wow. She's really good at this, isn't she?_ Ryouka thought as she suppressed a grimace from forming on her face. If she was still Harry, she would have been really touched by that speech and immediately caved in.

But she was not Harry anymore.

"That's… still a no from me."

Ryouka could have imagined it, but she swore she heard Recovery Girl clicking her tongue at her statement.

"Still a no? You're not moved at all by my speech? Hmm, I thought I'd be able to reel you in with that."

_Is this old lady for real…_

"Anyway, even if I want to be your apprentice— _which I don't_ —I can't." Ryouka shook her head with a sigh. "Being your apprentice means that I have to be with you every day and I have school to attend to. I can't just drop my education to be your apprentice."

Recovery Girl hummed cheerfully, waving a hand to dismiss her concern. "I don't think that will be a problem. I can arrange so that you can to U.A. That way, you can attend school and be my apprentice at the same time, right?"

Again, Ryouka felt her face twitch.  _This lady really don't know when to give up, huh._

"You're right." Ryouka said finally. "But the decision is not up to me—it's up to my parents. They're the one who have a say in my education."

"Oh! Silly me, I should have asked for their permission first before I approached you. I think my age is finally getting into me." Recovery Girl laughed her scary ohoho-laugh again. "If I may ask you, where is your parents, young lady?"

"I don't know. Somewhere in Africa. I don't know their exact location." Ryouka said, smirking smugly. Her parents' decision to have a sudden honeymoon suddenly worked in her favor. "Good luck finding them."

With that last words, Ryouka stood up and gathered her belongings before she left the Pro Hero behind, confident that she would not be able to find her parents so easily.

But of course, again, there was no such luck.

Right when she finally could rest on her hotel bed that night (her home was still being renovated), suddenly, her barely-ever-used phone rang the obnoxious ringtone Ryouka had set for her parent's number.

Groaning, she rolled on the bed until her hand could reach the phone that she put on the bedside table.

"Hello—" She greeted, but was immediately cut down by the excited shriek of her mother.

"Ryouka-chan, Ryouka-chan! Can you  _believe_  who just gave us a surprise visit?" Her mother giggled and honestly, Ryouka didn't care who just visited her, but she didn't have the heart to tell the woman just that.

"Just tell me who is it, Mum." Ryouka groaned into her pillow.

"It's my childhood idol, the one and only,  _Recovery Girl_!" Her mother shrieked again in her ears. "Oh, Ryouka-chan, why didn't you tell me that you two knew each other!"

Ryouka couldn't believe her ears.

"… _what_."

"She told me that she wanted to take you as her apprentice, and—this is honestly such a dream come true for me, to be able to speak to my idol, so I immediately agree to her request!" Her mother giggled again. "Isn't this good, Ryouka-chan? You'll be able to go to U.A., one of the best Hero Academy in Japan! Oh, this is such a happy occasion!"

_What._

"—I've always told you that your Quirk is Hero material, just like your grandpa! Oh, if he was still alive, he'd be so proud of you! Your dad is already opening the wine to celebrate, he's so excited that you're finally—hello, Ryouka-chan? Are you listening to me? Ryou—"

…

…

Goddamnit.

**No. 2 Recovery Girl — End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If this chapter's seemed rushed, it's because it IS rushed lol I'm so sorry.
> 
> So, **SinghSong** (at FFnet) asked if Ryouka's Quirk is the same as Recovery Girl or not. The answer is yes, they have the same type of Quirk (healing Quirk), but the activation requirement and how their Quirks work are quite different. From the manga and the anime, I think Recovery Girl's Quirk requires her to touch her lips to the recipient's body while Ryouka's Quirk will only activates if the recipient **breathes in her breath**. So no, Ryouka doesn't have to exactly kiss her patients, but kissing (or CPR or whatever that is you call them) is the most effective way for her to heal someone—especially if they're like, dying or something. Also, Recovery Girl's Quirk only sped up the recipient's healing rate so it's taxing on the recipient, while Ryouka's Quirk heals them by using Ryouka's energy instead.
> 
> **Sceonn** (at FFnet) said that having to kiss someone in those extreme cases are quite disgusting and I agree. Even Ryouka agrees with them too in chapter 1, but she can't just breathe out on people's injuries. You can read the reason why on the paragraph just above this one.


	3. No. 3  All Might

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original note from FFnet:
> 
> Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad that people seemed to really like this fic that I wrote half-heartedly lol. Some of you are disappointed, but well, this is the story that I want to write and I won't change it for anything. Many of you seemed to know the direction I'm going to take with this fic though… and here I really wanted to make it a surprise too lol.
> 
> There's some more explanation at the bottom of this chapter! I stole the name of Ryouka's Quirk from Junpei's (Persona 3) skill by the way.

"I hate this."

Ryouka grouched, glaring at the porcelain floor of the famed Hero Academy that would be her new school as she followed the small old lady that called herself Recovery Girl down the hallway.

"Now, now, Ibuki-chan. Live with the consequence of your action. You're the one who told me the location of your parents, aren't you? Of course I wasn't going to waste the chance you gave me. You even told me good luck, too." Recovery Girl said, trying to pacify her. She wore a serene smile on her face, but Ryouka knew that beneath that kind-old-lady façade was a devious schemer.

Ryouka clicked her tongue, annoyed that the Royal-Pain-in-Her-Ass was right. She was being too arrogant and sure of herself—so convinced that the old hero wouldn't be able to find her parents that fast. She didn't know that her mum was a fan of Recovery Girl too. It was her fault for not noticing this.

Recovery Girl didn't take her time with anything, it seemed. The old lady was quick to act and just a day after she found her parents (in the middle of  _African wilderness_  for gods' sake) Ryouka found herself being greeted by the Pro Hero in front of her hotel room first thing in the morning. Apparently the principal of U.A. had called for her so they could arrange her schedule for the following year.

"How do you even find them so fast anyway?" Ryouka asked finally, sighing as she resigned herself for her fate for at least the next year.

"Oh, I asked for Principal Nedzu's help." Her would-be-master said, flashing her a smug grin. "He owed me a lot, so he went an extra mile for me. He even introduced me to an acquaintance of his who had a Teleportation Quirk so I could meet your parents in person!"

Ryouka clicked her tongue again, annoyed that the Royal-Pain-in-Her-Ass was... being a royal pain in her ass. Damn her new master for being famous and have many connections.

Ryouka already knew she would have no rest once someone important noticed her Quirk, no matter what. Even telling the old lady to find her parents in Africa was just to delay the inevitable. She just didn't know that the Pro Hero would find them  _in a matter of hours_ though. Talk about  _overkill._

Well, it was already futile to resist, she should just go with the flow for now. It's not like being an apprentice healer would be that bad, right? She just have to heal people, not saving them. She'd leave the savings and heroic acts to people who actually want to be a Hero.

"Anyway, aren't your character a bit different now? You were so polite at me before, Ibuki-chan." Recovery Girl smiled at her.

"Well, you kind of forced me into this, you know. I'm displeased, so I'll behave however I want." Ryouka groused moodily. "I was acting like I'm polite and reserved because I don't want to attract unwanted attention in the first place. Now that I've been noticed, there's no need for me to pretend anymore."

"Don't be like that, Ibuki-chan! Here, have some Haribo candies." Recovery Girl laughed, shoving her a handful of said candies before she continued walking the long hallway again. "You'll thank me when you became a successful Hero later, I guarantee!"

Ryouka grimaced, looking at the candies that her soon-to-be master shoved in her hands. Popping one of them in her mouth, she sighed at the old lady. "That's… exactly the point. I don't  _want_  to be a Hero, successful or not."

"You say that now, Ibuki-chan, but I know your type." Recovery Girl wiggled her finger with squinted eyes like she's scolding a child. "Deep down, there's a hero inside of you. Someday, there will come the day when you couldn't stand all the evil that's happening around you and you  _will_  step in to save everyone."

As the old Hero finished her words, both of them stopped walking, each staring at the other's eyes with still expression before the somewhat tense moment was cut by the smile that the old woman suddenly sported on her face.

"Well, it's like that! I thought it'd be better if someone is there to guide you to that path rather than having you rushing into things unprepared." Recovery Girl laughed softly as she popped a candy into her mouth too. "That's just one of the reasons why I chose you, of course."

"There's other reasons?" Ryouka asked the Hero who took her time to answer her. Though, in the end the Hero didn't answer it by redirecting the conversation to another topic.

"Hmm. You'll find out soon enough. Ah, see that big door? That's the Principal's office." Recovery Girl said, pointing at said door with her cane. When they reached it, Recovery Girl knocked on the door 3 times before she opened it and walked in like she owned the place.

"Nedzu-chan, are you here?" Recovery Girl called out and Ryouka looked around at the empty room in annoyance. Come on, they called her in so early and they didn't even show up on time? She was about to say something when a white fluffy form of…  _something_ jumped on the sofa in the middle of the room proudly.

"Yes! It's me, the guy you can't quite make out if he's a mouse, a dog, or a bear: Nedzu, your soon-to-be principal!" The white fluffy thing who was apparently her new principal said, offering his hand to hers. "Ibuki Ryouka! It's nice to finally meet you! I've heard a lot of good things of you from Recovery Girl!"

And…  _damnit_ , Ryouka wanted to be rude to him for his part in getting her trapped in this situation, but… her new school principal was very cute and Ryouka was  _very weak_  against cute things. Like, the mouse-like principal was wearing a small  _suit._ It was a very cute sight.

But, Ryouka had an image to keep, damnit! She won't lose so easily.

"It's nice to meet you too. I guess." She grouched, reluctantly taking the hand his principal offered her.

"Yes, yes! Take a seat please!" The ( _man? Mouse hybrid?_ ) said, ushering both her and Recovery Girl to the other sofa, the one that he wasn't standing on. "Let's just get to business, shall we? I called you here today to talk to you about your schedule for the year. The paperwork are all done, you just have to read and sign it and I'll handle the rest. Don't forget to read everything thoroughly!"

Principal Nedzu handed her a stack of important-looking papers and a pen to sign them with.

"Alright."

"I'll brief you while you read then. To tell the truth, because you're transferring here during your second year, I wasn't sure how to properly arrange your education since you've been through the normal first year lessons, but if I put you with the rest of the second year you'll be missing one full year of heroic lessons. I wracked my brain all night and came up with the most brilliant idea!" The Principal beamed at her as he poured on green tea for all of them. "You'll have your normal lessons with the rest of your year-mates, but when it's time for the heroic lessons, you'll join one of the first years' class! Isn't this just  _exciting_?"

_No._

"Uh… I don't exactly see where the excitement is, but sure. Whatever works, I guess." Ryouka shrugged as she continued to read the documents. Strangely, there was quite a bit of clause regarding secrecy and whatnot here.

"Perfect! I've arranged a spot for you in class 2-A. I'll inform your transfer to your new homeroom teacher today. Ah, if you're done with that, Ibuki-kun, please fill in your measurement on this request form for your school and gym uniform. On the second page is for you to sketch your preferred design for your Hero costume! You can even make request of the materials and special functions of your uniform, so be as detailed as you can! I'm going to meet with the headmaster of your current school after this so you'll have to submit it to the support department yourself. I trust you can do that?"

Her new principal sure do like to talk huh.

"Sure, Nedzu-sensei. I have a question thou—"

What Ryouka was about to say was interrupted by the excited voice of the mouse-like principal.

"Would you look at that, Recovery Girl? She already called me  _Sensei._ This is touching, don't you think?"

"Very. She hasn't even called  _me_ Sensei yet." Recovery Girl agreed, pouting a bit.

Ryouka coughed to get their attention.  _Seriously these two_ …

" _As_  I was saying before the two of you interrupted me, I have a question." Ryouka looked at the mouse-hybrid principal pointedly. "Is this allowed? I didn't enter through the entrance exam after all."

"Yes, yes, there's no need for your concerns! People get recommendation letters all the time here, though normally we gave them to middle school students. There's Yaoyorozu Momo and Todoroki Shouto of first year, Sawa Rakan and Senroh Chigusa* of second year, and Yuzuriha Shiki and Kurumi Touya* from third year. You're not alone or special here, so don't worry!"

"Alright." Ryouka nodded in understanding. "What about my duty as Recovery Girl's apprentice?"

"Well, you're basically my sidekick from now on. You do what I told you to do, and in return I'll teach you everything I knew." The old hero smiled at her and sipped her tea before she continued her answer. "You'll serve with me in the campus' nurse office and whenever there's an emergency, you will go there in my place."

At her answer, Ryouka frowned. "I don't have a hero license though."

"Not to worry! Here's your license." Recovery Girl quipped as she slid a small card from her sleeve onto the table. "The Hero Association always makes an exception for Healing Quirk owners since we're so in demand and there're so few of us. Healers could get an Emergency Hero License without much fuss, but with it we're only allowed to heal, not to fight or rescue. If you wish to fight villains or protect and rescue civilians, you have to apply for the actual Pro Hero License."

"I see. How convenient." Ryouka said, taking said card from the table and turning it over. "This license is perfect for me, then."

"That's no good, Ibuki-chan! You have to strive higher than that!" Recovery girl pouted, huffing at her lack of ambition. "Plus Ultra! That's the motto of this academy, after all!"

"No thanks."

Quickly shutting down the idea of striving for greatness _,_ Ryouka flipped a page on her contract, frowning when she saw  _more_ secrecy clauses. She was just going to be an apprentice healer, why would they issue a gag order on her?

How suspicious.

"Can I ask you a question?" Ryouka asked out loud, not looking up from her contract documents. She caught the mouse-like principal and her soon-to-be master exchanging a brief  _look,_ but she didn't comment on it.

"Certainly! You can ask anything you don't understand, Ibuki-kun!" The small principal chirped happily, belying the previous apprehension she sensed him felt from before. Finally looking up from the papers in her hands, Ryouka arranged them back in order and put them on her lap as she frowned at the mouse-hybrid principal.

"Why the need for so many secrecy clause?" She asked, gesturing at the somewhat thick wad of papers on her lap. The Pro-Heroes exchanged looks again, openly this time, and this time it was Recovery Girl who answered her.

"We'll tell you after you sign it, Ibuki-chan." The old lady said in a placating tone, but Ryouka was  _not_ having it. Crossing her arms, she narrowed her eyes at the Pro Hero and very firmly retorted back at her.

"If you don't tell me now, I won't sign it."

When they only exchanged worried looks with each other instead of answering her, Ryouka was about to enact a very convincing rendition of the trademarked "Snape Glare" when suddenly the door was slammed open and a very muscly figure in a fitting dark blue suit suddenly stood in front of it.

"That's because of me." The figure said, flashing his very white teeth before he strutted inside, the blond antennas on his head staying strangely still even as he walked. "Greetings, young Ibuki, Mr. Principal, Recovery Girl! Excuse me for intruding on your meeting!"

Ryouka's eyes widened as she finally registered who this person was, but before she could voice her disbelieve, the tiny principal voiced it first.

"All Might!" The mouse-man gasped, tone disapproving. "You shouldn't be here!"

Hearing the admonishment in the tiny school principal's voice, the Number One Hero at least had a decency to look guilty.

"I know, but I was eavesdropping and I thought it would be unfair for young Ibuki here to be dragged into this without knowing anything!" All Might said, sounding apologetic while still maintaining his trademark smile.

All Might, Recovery Girl, and the principal exchanged glances  _again_ and Ryouka sighed, feeling a bit fed up. First all of the secrecy, and now All Might was involved too? What the hell is going on here?

"Explain," was all Ryouka said to that.

When Recovery Girl looked a bit worried at her demand, All Might quickly shook his head and flashed a reassuring grin at the old woman.

"It's alright. I trust young Ibuki. She won't spill my secret to the media!"

_Secret? Media?_

Ryouka frowned, beginning not to dislike where the conversation was going, but finally the mouse-hybrid principal nodded his acquiescence at the Number One Hero's judgement.

"Alright then," Principal Nedzu began gravely. "Ibuki-kun, what I'm going to tell you is a state secret. You must absolutely not tell this to anyone else."

When Ryouka shot him an unimpressed look, he coughed and nodded at her.

"Well… to put it simply, All Might is dying." At the tiny principal's words, Ryouka fought not to choke on her own saliva. Was her hearing suddenly failing her or did she really hear that right?

"…what." Ryouka finally said after a long while of staring at the three to see if they're just actually fooling her, but no, they looked entirely too grim to just be joking around.

Recovery Girl, hearing her disbelieving reaction, nodded to back up the principal's claim.

"It's true, Ibuki-chan. All Might is dying. Maybe at an extremely slow rate because of the combined effort between us and the government to keep him alive, but he's dying all the same," the old lady said, looking dejected and guilty somehow. Ryouka could guess why—she must be All Might's primary healer and she failed to heal him. That must frustrate her.

"It's been five years… and I'm only getting worse each day." All Might added, still grinning like it wasn't a serious matter. "I met a really tough villain 5 years ago. That villain gave me a wound that not even the most advanced medical technology could heal."

Ryouka followed his movements as he traced the wound under the pristine suits he was wearing with a frown. From his left rib and down to his navel, before the hero continued his explanations.

"My respiratory system is in shambles and my stomach was totally scooped out. I've wasted away from constant surgeries and their complications and reduced to a maximum of around three hours of heroics every day. Even this muscle form I am wearing right now was just that—a form, and just maintaining it has already proven to be difficult and taxing for me."

Wait, this wasn't even his  _real form?_

"…are you serious?" Ryouka finally said, still expecting everything to be an elaborate joke or a trap to make her sign the damn contract, but…one look at All Might she could already tell that it was all real.

"Unfortunately." The Number One Hero nodded, finally a hint of discomfort showing through his ever-present grin. "Even now that I am stable, I still vomit blood when I exerted myself. Sometimes, even when I'm in a relaxed state too. I can't eat solid food either so recovering is pretty hard for me."

Ryouka pressed her lips tightly.

"…show me your real form and the location of the injury."

After a brief exchange of glances with the principal and the old healer, All Might nodded at her and with a poof of white smoke, the muscly form of the Number One Hero was replaced with a skeletal, gaunt, and brittle man with too large suits hanging on his small frame.

The gaunt man then lifted his shirt to show her his injuries and… Ryouka closed her eyes tightly.

This… this was  _serious_.

"You should be at the hospital." Ryouka finally said, opening her eyes and setting her gaze on the blond man in front of her.

"Evil will never rest, young Ibuki! There's no way I can stay still when evil is lurking around, threatening civilians!"

As expected of the Symbol of Peace—he didn't accept her suggestion of what he should do as a sane person. Instead, he stood up from his seat and launched into a short monologue, clenching his hand to his chest and settling into his muscle form.

Ryouka sighed and massaged the area between her eyebrows with her index finger and thumb as she leaned back onto her seat.

"I won't lie. Even this is beyond the ability of my Quirk." Ryouka told him honestly. "I'm sure you knew the details about my Quirk already, if you're that determined to have me."

"Yes, actually. We have the data from the Quirk Registries." Nedzu-sensei answered her. " _Spring of Life_ , a Quirk that can heal any wound by breathing in the user's breath. Unlike Recovery Girl's  _Recovery_ which only speed up the receiver's healing rate, Spring of Life actually healed them by draining the user's energy. Though there's no limit to how severe the damage that can be healed, there's a limit to how much you can heal before you ran out of energy. So far, the limit seems to be about thirty minor injuries or equivalent to about three major ones."

"Not bad." Ryouka nodded, but the principal was missing something crucial about her Quirk. "My Quirk can only heal a  _fresh_  wound though. If you came to me while the wound is still fresh, I would be able to fix it somehow, but this, while badly, are already healed."

She paused, looking at All Might before she continued.

"I could potentially heal it with my Quirk of course," Ryouka continued. "But to do that I need to deconstruct about half of your upper body so I could reconstruct it back to your prime state, and in your state right now, there's no way you will survive it."

All Might nodded in understanding, not at all dejected by what she just told them.

"It's alright, young Ibuki! That's not why we required your presence here!" The Symbol of Peace said enthusiastically. "In my current state, Recovery Girl's Recovery won't be able to help me anymore as it leave me very exhausted and weak every time it was used on me, that's why we are in need of your help!"

"I see." Ryouka hummed, looking at Recovery Girl who was looking at her with a sheepish smile. "So all that shit about you seeing a Hero in me and wanting to make me your apprentice was just a cover so that I'll be All Might's designated healer?"

"Yes." Recovery Girl nodded, finally coming clean to her about her intention. "Of course I didn't lie about seeing a Hero potential in you, but this is the main reason why I want you. Why we  _need_  you. Currently, there are no other Healing Quirks that are quite as powerful as yours, mine included."

"I see." Ryouka said, acknowledging her honesty. She looked back at All Might, who started to sweat nervously under her calculating stare.

Truthfully, if she used magic and her potions making skill, she could probably make him a new stomach and lungs from his DNA and could attach it inside him without harm. Combined with her Quirk, he would probably be as healthy as he was before the incident happened in about three to six months, depending on how hard it would be to construct the organs needed, but…

She looked at everyone in the room and closed her eyes again.

She wasn't ready to tell them about her magic yet.

Finally, after a lot of contemplation, Ryouka sighed out loud, making the nervous man in front of her jump in anxiousness.

"I still think you should be at the hospital, All Might." Ryouka began and was cut by the man's nervous explanation.

"I… understand, but this world needs a symbol of peace so that—"

Ryouka snorted at that and grabbed the pen on the table.

"Save that lecture for someone who cares," she said, signing the documents that finally cemented her apprenticeship with Recovery Girl. "I'll do it."

"Young Ibuki!"

"Ibuki-chan!"

"Ibuki-kun!"

"I don't want anything like this to be dropped on me so suddenly again though. No more secrecy. I  _hate_  being manipulated into something I don't want." She growled, glaring at the three adults in front of her as she slammed the pen loudly back to the table. "Believe me when I said I  _can_  make your lives into an unending nightmare should you do that to me again."

She wasn't above getting revenge on the people who wronged her multiple times, after all. She wasn't that much of a pushover, no matter how lazy she was or that she usually prefer to go with rather than against the flow.

"We understand." Principal Nedzu said, smiling at her and extending his hands towards her. "Thank you for your cooperation, Ibuki-kun."

"Good." Ryouka nodded, shaking the tiny hand in front of her strongly before a dangerous glint entered her eyes. "Then let us discuss my payment for being your sidekick then."

No way she's letting them work her to the bone for free.

**No. 3 All Might — End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original note from FFnet:
> 
> Oh shit it turned way more serious than I planned. Not that I have one, but you know what I mean.
> 
> You guys are definitely expecting way too much from this story though, lol. First of all, there won't be any bashing in here. No bashing her parents, no bashing Recovery Girl, no bashing at all. Ryouka's just not dedicated enough to bash them. She might be snarky and is kind of paranoid that everyone's out to get her, but she's not bitter or angry at all.
> 
> Secondly, no I haven't decided if healing is the full extent of Ryouka's Quirk. I can't think that far into the future, unfortunately, so we'll just have to wait and see if I came up with ideas or not lol. Kiss of Death does seem interesting, but I think that deviates too far from Ryouka's main Quirk.
> 
> Thanks for reading, have a nice day!
> 
> * _Yuzuriha Shiki_ and _Kurumi Touya's_ name are stolen from Morimoto Shuu's **Moon Trick** while _Sawa Rakan_ and _Senroh Chigusa_ are from Sugiura Shiho's **Silver Diamond**. I love them, ok, shhh.


	4. No. 4  Goodbye

Ryouka had been alive for a long time, and during those lifetimes, she had acquired a lot of skills.

One of them was haggling.

With great satisfaction, she managed to rip Recovery Girl and Nedzu-sensei off by making them agree to pay her a 3500 Yen per hour salary for her service as All Might's healer and Recovery Girl's sidekick, which was a pretty damn good salary for a part time job—2500 Yen above the minimum hourly wage for most Heroes' sidekicks.*

Ryouka might not want to be a Hero or a Sidekick or whatever it was you called them, but if she absolutely  _had_ to be one, she sure as hell would reap as much benefit from it as possible.

It sure made her wonder where the heck they got all that money from though. Even U.A.'s building was really lavish—the training facilities were top notch too, yet the tuition was not that expensive for such an outstanding school. Maybe the government was backing them financially? Well, whatever. Not her business to know where the money come from as long as she got paid the amount they'd agreed on.

Anyway, with her meal provided by the school, her tuition covered from the scholarship they promised her, and her hourly wage such a large amount, all in all it wasn't that bad of a deal. The only downside was that she had to be careful not to reveal her magic and that Recovery Girl had the right to call her for fieldwork  _at any time_ if there's an emergency.

Ryouka mentally lamented the fact that she probably will lose quite a few nights of sleep after this. Her skin was going to look terrible.

Oh well, nothing that a good nutrients potion or a blemish balm wouldn't help.

After the number was agreed upon, Recovery Girl told her to finish up her uniform and Hero costume application form, but Ryouka didn't know what to put in her Hero costume so it took her a long time to finish. In the first place, why did Heroes even have to wear  _costumes?_ Wasn't it embarrassing and impractical to wear something so gaudy in public?

Grumbling under her breath, she finally just scribbled some words on the 'Preferred Design' section of the page.

' _I don't really care what it looked like as long as it's durable, comfortable, easy to wear, and easy to move in. Please don't make it too revealing or gaudy, or I'll come to the field just wearing T-shirt and old sweatpants.'_

"Are you finished yet, Ibuki-chan?" Her soon-to-be Master asked curiously.

Ryouka frowned at that, feeling that the old lady somehow became more genuine with her. Was it because she agreed to all these troubles with All Might?

"I do, actually. Where do I drop this off?" Ryouka asked casually, quickly adjusting the forms so that Recovery Girl couldn't see what she had written in the preferred design section.

"The support department," the old healer reminded her patiently. "It's quite far from here—in the other side of the campus. Are you sure you're alright alone?"

Ryouka shrugged. "Probably. I'll just ask someone if I get lost."

"Do not worry, for I am here!" All Might suddenly yelled, standing up as he transformed back into his muscle form with a small poof of smoke. When Ryouka, Recovery Girl, and the Principal stared at him for his interruption, the No. 1 Hero blushed and scratched his cheek clumsily.

"I-I mean, I can take young Ibuki there. It shouldn't take more than several seconds." All Might explained, moving his hands awkwardly to make his points before he stopped, looking down at Ryouka's indifferent stare. He gulped visibly, before continuing in a quiet voice, "If she wants to, of course."

Ryouka felt her lips quirking upwards involuntarily.

The man, with his heroism and muscly body and face that looked like they came out straight from an American comic book, was actually a dork. That's kind of… adorable, actually.

"Sure, why not." Ryouka agreed, voice laced with only a hint of amusement. Inside though, she was thoroughly enjoying herself seeing the untouchable hero acting flustered like a schoolboy. "If we're going to spend a lot of time kissing—I mean,  _healing_ —in the future, it would be a good idea for us to know each other better anyway."

"K- _kissing_ —" All Might sputtered, waving his hands around him in panic, his face flushing hotly even as his everlasting grin stayed in place. "T-that—I-I didn't mean for—"

Ryouka couldn't help it. She snorted loudly.

"I'm just teasing." Ryouka said, hiding a smile behind her hand. "You don't have to worry, All Might- _sensei_. I am not interested in you in that way so you don't need to be conscious of me."

Without waiting for the blond man's reaction, she stood from her seat, gathering the papers she need to submit to the support department.

"Come, All Might-sensei. The sooner I submit this paper, the sooner I can go home and rest." Ryouka said, nodding her head at the Principal and Recovery Girl to tell them she was leaving before she went to the door, leaving All Might there in the room, still gaping at her disappearing back.

"You sure do pick an interesting person to join us, Chiyo-sensei." Principal Nedzu said, sipping his tea calmly as he watched the commotion.

Recovery Girl laughed at his words.

"That she is, Nedzu-chan." The old lady chuckled softly before she sipped her own tea, a proud but somehow sad feeling settling inside her tiny, old heart.

"That she is."

 

 

 

Done with the transferring school business, Ryouka went home after being dropped in the hallway near the front gate by the No. 1 Hero.

As thanks for dropping her there (she didn't want to walk all the way there—U.A's campus was  _huge,_ alright) she asked the skeletal-looking Hero to bend down to her height so that she could reach his face and pressed her lips onto his. He jerked, startled by her sudden action, but was compliant when she pried his mouth open and breathed out her Spring of Life into his lungs.

"There you go. Do you feel better?" Ryouka asked him casually. As she expected, the poor hero was shocked speechless.  _How amusing_ , she thought inwardly. His face was so red that Ryouka wondered how he didn't faint from all the blood pressure.

Ryouka could see the visible signs that her quirk had worked even without hearing All Might's answer though. The hero's complexion looked healthier, he stood a little straighter, and his hands stopped trembling. He must be just acting tough before even though he must be in quite some pain.

Ryouka knew that in addition to healing them, her quirk gave a certain 'refreshing' feeling for the recipient and gave them some boost in energy, so he would be fine for now—until he acted recklessly and overexerted himself, at least.

Ryouka pressed her lips together.

' _Heroes. Always so self-sacrificing.'_

"Well, I'm going. Thanks for the ride, Hero," Ryouka said to her soon-to-be patient for the year. All Might managed to compose himself better this time as he let out a small chuckle and nodded at her.

"Thank you for healing me too. I feel better already," the hero said awkwardly and Ryouka smiled a little at that.

"I'm glad. Because I'm exhausted now. Your injuries are more serious than they appear to be. Take care now."

Without waiting for a response, Ryouka turned back and started walking towards the gate, leaving the No. 1 Hero behind.

Since the meeting with her employers took only a few hours, it was still midday when Ryouka stepped outside of the prestigious school's vicinity so she decided to walk leisurely around the town before she finally head back to the train station because she had nothing to do at home anyway.

As she walked through a shopping district near the station, a brochure plastered onto the glass window of a beauty salon caught her eyes.

' _A haircut, huh…'_ Ryouka mused silently.

Ryouka took a lock of her hair and stared at it wistfully. She had grown her hair long and untamed to hide her face so no one would notice her, but… it's not like she needed a disguise anymore right? She had been discovered, and it was a pain trying to see through her bangs.

Ryouka sighed and dropped her hands back to her side.

This was it for her.

She was going to lose her anonymity after this no matter what she does, wasn't she?

It wasn't that Ryouka regretted any of her actions that ultimately brought her to this point in life. She didn't even blame Recovery Girl for doing what she did—not when she found out the reason behind her actions. No, she was the one who couldn't let go of her saving-people thing even though she had  _sworn_  to herself that she was going to have a perfectly normal life for once, after everything that happened in her previous lives.

She was the one who decided to save that girl's father, and she was the one who decided to be All Might's healer—because she knew how it felt to want to save people no matter what happened to himself.

She had been in his place before. She had even  _died_  a martyr,  _more than once_ , in her previous lives. She understood his need to protect people, which was why she knew he won't be stopped. The only thing the people around him could do was provide support—either until there was no evil left in the world for him to conquer or until he burned himself out trying to do it, and Ryouka might be trying to stop being a  _hero,_ but she wasn't heartless.

Still, she wondered if she made the right decision. She  _loved_ the freedom that anonymity had given her. It was just a taste, but that little taste she had was wonderful. But… if she was going through with all of this, she will lose everything that she tried to build ever since she was born to this world. Was she ready for it?

Ryouka scowled, annoyed at herself.

Since when did she became such a coward? The "her" from her previous lives would be rolling in their graves now, if they were actually separate people.

There was no point in being hesitant and second-guessing everything. It was happening whether she was ready or not, so she better be ready for it. There was no point in dawdling around, wondering if it was the right decision or not. She was never the one to think things thoroughly anyway.

Besides, even if she hadn't accepted the offer to be All Might's healer, she still wouldn't have a normal life anyway.

Ryouka might have gotten lazy after all the times she had been alive, but she was not stupid. She knew how invaluable her so-called Quirk was in this world.

In her original world that she lived in as Harry Potter, a power like hers was simply fantastical. No magic could ever do something like she could now—that was why potions existed in the first place.

It might seem trivial at first glance, after all it wasn't flashy and explosive unlike most Heroes' Quirks, but healers could change the tides of a battle in a heartbeat—which was why they were so precious and desirable.

Ryouka knew how useful her Quirk was.

She also knew how fast rumors travelled.

Because of her actions all through last week with the strings of accidents that happened around her, people had begun to talk about her and she knew she had been getting some interest from the Villains' side too.

Recovery Girl was devious and might have tried to blackmail her, but she  _was_  harmless.  _If_  the Villains approached her though, she really would lost any chance of having a relatively normal life. Not only that, her family would be in danger too should she refused to go with them.

It was better for her to be under the Heroes' wings, who at least were not people who actively hurt people or cause terror on a daily basis.

The only thing she could do right now was move forward cautiously. These people only discovered her  _Quirk_  anyway. It wasn't that bad. She just had to heal some people. It wasn't like they knew she could do  _more_ than heal people. They didn't know about his magic, so she still would have a relatively normal life. She could even still write her novels too in her free time between healing people.

She rubbed her forehead, feeling tired and stupid now for overreacting and being dramatic about everything. Well, that's one thing that never changed no matter in which world she was in, she guessed.

With a sigh, she finally stepped inside the salon.

A new look for a new stage in her life.

Fitting, right?

Well, if anything else, at least she didn't have to cover herself up now.

She  _was_  quite fond of the body she currently resided in after all.

**No. 4 Goodbye — End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _*3500 JPY = 32.83 USD (26/02/2018)_
> 
> Next chapter will be out on Sunday (my time) and I will link a doodle of Ryouka wearing her hero costume so you could see what I imagine her looks like!
> 
> (Also if you're wondering why I update so slowly it's because I'm currently writing my undergraduate thesis. I'm in the middle of escapism though so you're getting two (or even three) new chapters in these next few days!)


	5. No. 5  Wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter. I quite like this chapter so I guess it won’t be too bad!

“Oh!” Recovery Girl gasped in delight when she saw Ryouka the next morning when she came to report in to her. “You cut your hair!”

“Obviously.” Ryouka muttered under her breath, but she could understand why the old lady was surprised. Even _she herself_ was surprised. She forgot how good she looked when she wasn’t hiding beneath unnecessary glasses and her long, unkempt hair. The hairdresser from yesterday had done a good job too to bring out her good points—not that it was difficult to do since she was already beautiful from the start. Was that a bit vain? She didn’t care though because she looked _good._

Closing the door of the nurse’s office behind her as she stepped inside the white room, she looked around quickly before she noticed a strangely familiar-looking green-haired boy with an arm in a cast, sitting on a chair behind the healer’s desk. Deciding to ignore him, she addressed the healer grumpily.

“Well, I’m here now. What should I do now, Recovery Girl?” Ryouka asked.

“Aww, you don’t have to be so cold to me. Call me Chiyo-sensei, Ibuki-chan,” the tiny woman said, pouting as she went up a stall to take something from amidst the bottles of medicines and strange chemicals that Ryouka couldn’t read the label inside one of the shelves.

“You look beautiful, by the way. The new hair suits you,” she added, shooting a smile at her direction as she stepped down to approach the boy and checked the cast on his right arm.

“I know, but thank you for pointing that out anyway,” Ryouka nodded as she watched the healer work on the boy. “What do you need me here for, Chiyo-sensei?”

“Oh, right! I have to explain to you about your timetable,” Chiyo-sensei said. “But first, here, change into this.”

The healer gave a bag to her and Ryouka peeked inside and saw that it was several uniform sets for winter, summer, and also for Phys. Ed. She took it and went to one of the beds and pulled the cover so that she could change without revealing her body to the boy. As she changed, she could hear the old lady’s voice from behind the screen, explaining her schedule for the rest of the year.

“From the 1st through 4th periods you will spend with your classmates, then after lunch you will join the first years for your Foundational Hero lessons in 5th and 6th periods. You’ll join 1-B for this week. You will spend your lunch break here with me in the Nurse’s Office for your main duty as my apprentice and after school you will join me again in here until all extracurricular activities are over in case any of the students need our help. In addition, whenever there’s an emergency, you will accompany me to the location immediately and help me heal the heroes on duty.”

Chiyo-sensei paused, before she spoke again. “Did you get all that?”

“Sure.” Ryouka nodded from behind the screen as she finished up tying up the tie. She pulled the screen aside again and went to put her previous clothes on the desk, and Recovery Girl nodded in approval at how neat she wore her uniform.

“Good.” The healer said, smiling at her briefly before she turned to the boy again. “You’re good to go, Midoriya-chan. Come back here after school for a final checkup, okay?”

_‘Midoriya, huh… wonder where I saw him before. Even his name was familiar,’_ Ryouka thought as she saw the boy bow deeply before leaving the room.

“Now, follow me to your classroom. You have to introduce yourself in front of the class, so choose your words carefully, okay? Your classmates’ are going to be your companions until you graduate, so try your best to get along with them, okay, Ibuki-chan?” Chiyo-sensei said as she led him through a number of hallways, finally stopping in front of a door with the sign, [2-A] on it.

The old lady put a finger on her lips, motioning her to be silent before she knocked on the door.

“Thirteen-chan, I’ve brought Ibuki-chan here.”

Ryouka heard a rustling sound and approaching footsteps from within before the door opened, revealing an astronaut suit.

“Oh! That’s right, your apprentice!” The suit said in a cheery, soft voice. “It’s very nice to finally meet you, Ibuki-kun! I’ve told the class about your transfer yesterday, and they really look forward to meet you!”

“I… I see.” Ryouka stuttered, not expecting her new teacher to be this… cute. “That’s great.”

“It is! Everyone is such a good kid, you’ll love them!” The astronaut suit said, and somehow even though Ryouka couldn’t see his face he got the impression that they were smiling proudly.

“Oh, I almost forgot! I’m Number Thirteen, and I’ll be your homeroom teacher in 2-A. Please treat me kindly!” Thirteen-sensei bowed lightly, and Ryouka wanted to bang her head on the nearest wall because of how adorable their voice was.

She managed to curb the urge.

Barely.

“I’m Ibuki Ryouka. Please treat me kindly too, Thirteen-sensei.” Ryouka bowed in return, and again, he got the impression that the astronaut suit-wearing teacher was beaming at her in delight.

“Great! Now, let’s come in so you could introduce yourself to your new classmates!” Thirteen-sensei said, opening the door and motioning for her to come in.

“Stand!” Someone from the class said loudly, followed by another word immediately after. “Bow!”

“Thank you, Narushige-kun!” Thirteen-sensei said, nodding at a beautiful tall boy with the long ponytail and an iridescent snake around his neck. The boy, Narushige, smiled radiantly at the teacher before he sit on his chair.

“Listen, everyone! Our transfer student is finally here! Please give her a warm welcome, okay?” Thirteen-sensei said cheerily as they made a big gesture towards her as she stepped beside the astronaut suit-wearing teacher.

When she stayed silent, the teacher nudged her with their elbow and nodded encouragingly.

“Go on. Introduce yourself!”

Taking the teacher’s cue, Ryouka finally addressed her classmates who were looking at her with curiosity and excitement. Ryouka could understand why since it wasn’t often that people transferred to U.A.

“My name is Ibuki Ryouka. I’m 17 and transferred here from K-High because Recovery Girl scouted me.” Ryouka paused, contemplating if she should say something more personal to her new classmates. In the end she decided not to. “…That is all.”

Thirteen-sensei clapped their hands happily after her introduction.

“Thank you, Ibuki-kun! Now, if there’s anything you want to ask her, I’ll give you five minutes to do it before we will begin our lesson. Any other questions will have to wait until lunch break, so go!”

Immediately, excited murmurs could be heard all over the classroom.

“Sensei, I want to ask something!” Someone said, raising their hand. When Thirteen-sensei nodded at him to continue, he continued with his question excitedly. “What’s your Quirk, Ibuki-chan?”

The person behind him quickly slapped the back of his head. “Stupid, she’s Recovery Girl’s apprentice, of course it’s a healing Quirk!”

The first person pouted, rubbing at his head. “I’m just trying to make a conversation, sheesh!”

Ryouka’s lip involuntarily twitched upright. She had thought that being a student of a prestigious school such as U.A. would make the students here stuck up and arrogant, like how Malfoy used to be, but turned out they’re just normal kids.

“It’s alright,” Ryouka said finally. “My Quirk is called Spring of Life. It is indeed a healing Quirk.”

Another guy raised his hand. “What’s your favorite food then?”

Ryouka hummed, contemplating, before she came to a decision. “Right now? It’s pizza.”

“Want to get some with me this weekend?”

“Can someone shut him up?”

The silly questionings continued on for some times before finally Thirteen-sensei clapped their hands again to sign that the time was up.

“Alright, that’s enough for now!” The teacher called to quiet down their students. They motioned for Ryouka to come closer and pointed at a brown haired boy that sat near the back of the class. “Now, Ibuki-chan, your seat is next to Sawa-kun there. Sawa-kun, help her out, okay?”

_‘It’s the other recommendation student’_ , Ryouka realized, recognizing the name. She saw as the boy smiled pleasantly and surprisingly genuinely at her, and Ryouka could almost see flowers blooming behind him like those _shoujo manga_ effects whenever a prince just did something amazing.

“Of course, Sensei,” Sawa-kun said with his refreshing smile, and Ryouka’s heart felt like she just saw the sun with how bright the boy was being. Was that his Quirk? Did he just smile at the Villains and blind them with his radiance?

Betraying her train of thoughts, Ryouka just nodded at him expressionlessly as she walked to the desk beside his. Sawa-kun just smiled at her and pushed their desks together so he could share his book with her.

Satisfied with the boy’s actions, Thirteen-sensei nodded and turned towards the black board.

“Now… let’s begin with math—”

 

 

 

That first week went on quite well, surprisingly.

Ryouka did well in her classes, worked with Chiyo-sensei during lunch and extracurricular activities, heal All Might once a day, and sometimes got called during the night to help with heroic duties.

Imagine Ryouka’s reaction when a guy with ridiculous fish costume just appeared on her hotel room one night, introducing himself as “Quickie” and telling her that he had been assigned the task of retrieving her for heroic duties by Recovery Girl so that she could arrive on time because he had a teleporting Quirk.

She was not amused.

Besides his dubious name and ridiculous costume though, he was a nice guy. A bit loud maybe, but nice. They worked well together and he would deliver her back to her hotel room when they were done, so Ryouka couldn’t be too annoyed at him (especially since he was just doing his job).

There was also a small incident where U.A.’s intruder alarm went off during lunch two days ago, but it turned out to be a reporter who accidentally overstepped into the school grounds. Besides that, everything seemed to be normal and Ryouka actually made some friends at school.

Sawa-kun, (who insisted on being called “Rakan”) had been very nice to her after their initial meeting in class. He and his friends, Shigeka Narushige-san, Tohno Tohji-kun, and Senroh Chigusa had helped her a lot during her first few days at school, showing her the way when she got lost—which was almost all the time. It wasn’t her fault though. The school was built like a maze.

Rakan was a really kind person too and flowers literally bloomed whenever he was around. His Quirk, “ _Sanome_ ”, was a Quirk that lets him manipulate the growth rate and genetic makeup of plants and he constantly experimented with new and strange plants. The Bell fruits he gave the entire class yesterday were particularly delicious. If he ever decide to back out from being a Hero, he could probably make a living from selling his creations.

Ryouka also got along well enough with the students from 1-B, which was the class she joined during the Foundational Hero Studies for that week. Monoma Neito was a headache she didn’t want to acknowledge that he existed though. She was glad that Nedzu-sensei had decided that she would alternate between which class she would join every week so she didn’t have to deal with that boy’s strange grudge on people in [A] classes every day.

At the end of the first week, her home reparations were finally finished and she could move back in, All Might had finally gotten more comfortable around her to eat lunch with her and Recovery Girl in the infirmary, she hadn’t slip up and revealed her magic to anyone, and her hero… _costume_ … was finally finished.

Ryouka grimaced, holding up the costume with both of her hands.

To be honest, it wasn’t all that bad as far as costumes went, but it was just so… _blinding…_ in all its all-white glory. The only other colors in it was gold and red and it looked terribly heroic it was like a bad joke. It wasn’t too revealing and proved to be easy to move in though, and his boots, while it was high-heeled was tweaked with some gadget by the Support Department so that it provided balance no matter the terrain she walked on in those things.

Oh well.

At least the gloves were nice.

“How do you like it?” All Might asked her from where he was rested with a small smile in her direction and Ryouka turned to look at him. The tall and gaunt man had become more comfortable with her after a week now and he didn’t blush or stutter as much when she had to use her Quirk on him.

Ryouka berated him a lot the first days they worked together. She could tolerate it when the man neglected his own health and limit if it meant he could save more people, but, seriously? Morning jogs? With his failing lungs and nonexistent stomach?

This man was a disaster waiting to happen.

Usually when people was being this hardheaded, Ryouka would just beat them, heal them, and then beat them up again until they freaking gave up on their ridiculous ideas, but she couldn’t do that when the person in question was already halfway dead could she?

Instead, she made an agreement with him.

If the stupid Hero wanted to be reckless, at least he should have done it with a healthier body.

And so was Ryouka tricked into making a stupid healthy and nutritious meal plan that she made the stupid Hero promise to follow down to a tee. Now every lunchtime, after their daily healing session, All Might sat in the nurse’s office with her as he ate the meal she asked Lunch-Rush to prepare especially for him.

It was difficult getting him to actually keep anything down though since his new stomach was practically useless and Ryouka had to heal him every few mouthfuls of food so that he could keep it down, but he was trying. He genuinely wanted to be better, so Ryouka will help him even if that meant that she have to heal him like every few minutes.

That ‘making All Might some new organs’ idea from the week before grew more appealing each day though.

At least it would save her the hassle.

Ryouka quickly stuffed the costume inside its briefcase again and turned towards All Might, who were looking at her expectantly.

“It’s not that bad,” Ryouka began, trying to hide her distaste. “I imagine the white will dirty easily though.”

“Hero costumes are made with special fabric so it’s more resistant to tearing or dirt.” All Might chuckled as he continued eating. “I think it looks great. White will look good on you. You’re wearing it for the afternoon lesson today, right?”

Ryouka nodded at him.

“Yeah. I’m joining 1-A starting this week.”

“You’ll like them. They’re good kids,” All Might grinned. “Actually, I’m supposed to be joining Thirteen-sensei in today’s lessons—”

“Absolutely _not._ You have used up your 3 hours of heroics today. Even if my Quirk extended the time limit by a few minutes, you have to call it quits today,” Ryouka hissed before the Hero could finish his sentence, glaring at the man who shrunk guiltily from her gaze.

“Now finish your meal. Just drink the soup if you don’t think you can handle the rest. I have to go back to class. If I see you at class later you won’t like the consequences, you hear me?” Ryouka threatened All Might who nodded hastily before she yelled at him again. He made the mistake of disobeying her that one time when she found him on his morning jogs and had been properly terrified by what she could do to him.

Ryouka sighed and gathered her things before she went to 1-A’s classroom.

She walked in the empty hallway that connected the Nurse’s Office to the classroom buildings with heavy footsteps.

Ever since she woke up that morning, Ryouka had been having this uneasy feeling. Everything was fine as usual so far. She got along with All Might and the other teachers, she worked well with Recovery Girl, and she managed to keep her magic a secret from everyone for another day, but…

…somehow she had a bad feeling that grew like a poisonous vine inside of her.

Ryouka fiddled with the pendant necklace around her neck in a rare gesture of apprehension. It was a diamond-shaped ruby stone that was encased in a frame made of gold. She had bought it a long time ago as a substitute focus for her magic since she didn’t have her wand with her, but she never wore it before today.

She gripped the pendant tightly as she stood in front of the classroom door.

She didn’t know what about today that sets her senses off, but she hoped to whatever higher being out there that her feeling was wrong, for once.

Give her a break, please.

**No. 5 Wrong — End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _*If you want to know about Rakan, Chigusa, Narushige-san, and Touji, go read Silver Diamond! It won’t waste your time I promise, it’s really a good read!_
> 
> Next chapter (or the next one) is something that I’ve been wanting to write since the beginning! It’s not that exciting but somehow I really love the idea of a blood-drenched Ryouka making a declaration to the Villain Alliance.
> 
> (Consider that a preview lol.)
> 
> Also about her new focus/pendant, ruby is Harry’s birthstone so I used it! Her Hero costume is red because of it too actually. Anyway, here's the doodle I promised! Click [here](https://lemony-monster.deviantart.com/art/ryouka-doodle-751097776?ga_submit_new=10%3A1529743905) for bigger picture!


	6. No. 6 Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got to write the USJ Arc!! This is definitely one of my favorite Arc in the series. This is just the prelude though! The rest of the Arc will be concluded in the next chapter. 
> 
> I have an announcement before you read! From this chapter onward, Ryouka will address the teachers as “sensei” only if she’s talking to them directly. Also Thirteen will be referred with male pronounces from this chapter too because using the gender neutral ones confuse me sometimes. Sorry about that! 
> 
> I literally hadn’t checked this chapter for mistakes, so probably I made a lot of them, but I hope you enjoy this anyway!

**No. 6 Storm**

“Ok, quiet down you brats. From today onwards we’ll be joined by Ibuki here for Hero Studies. Any questions you want to ask her can be asked later. Preferably outside of class.” Aizawa Shouta, the homeroom teacher for 1-A, grunted behind his—bandages? Scarf?—as he gestured towards Ryouka who was standing beside him in front of the class.

“Ibuki. Go sit on the empty seat beside Yaoyorozu.”

Ryouka glanced at the class to see the girl he mentioned raising her hand with a smile at her and she nodded, approaching the girl.

“Now… for today’s Foundational Hero Studies, it was decided you’ll be supervised by a three instructors comprising me, All Might, and somebody else,” the unkempt-looking teacher continued monotonously and a thin boy with straight hair raised his hand excitedly at his announcement.

“Sensei! What’ll we be doing!?”

“Disaster, shipwrecks, and everything in between,” he announced, pulling out a fancy card with the word RESCUE emblazoned on the surface. “It’s rescue training.”

“Rescue… looks like it’ll be a lot of work this time, too.”

“Right?”

The students began to chat excitedly, but Aizawa was quick to stop them before they got too rowdy.

“Don’t get ahead of yourselves,” he warned. “As I was saying, this time, it’s entirely up to each of you whether or not you wear your costume. Some of your costumes probably aren’t adapted to the task at hand, after all. The training area is fairly far away, so we’ll get there by bus. That’s all. Go get prepared.”

As everyone excitedly claimed their costume cases and went to the changing room to change into their costumes, Ryouka approached the underground Hero.

“Aizawa-sensei,” she called out, catching his attention. “All Might-sensei will not be joining us today.”

She was informed that Aizawa knew of All Might’s circumstances and also her role as her healer so she decided to inform him of this. Hearing her words, the man seemed to hold back a grimace, understanding her underlying message that their resident idiot had probably overexerted himself again.

“…That guy’s the height of irrational.” The man sighed. “Oh well. Thanks for informing me. Now go prepare yourself.”

“Yes sir.”

 

 

 

“Senpai, Senpai! You have a healing Quirk, right? How does it work exactly?” A pink haired girl asked excitedly, leaning forward and peeking at her from the seat beside hers. Ryouka paused for a moment there before she decided to explain. It might be good for them to know what her Quirk was like since they were probably going to injure themselves sooner or later.

“It’s my breath,” Ryouka said. “It converted my own energy into healing power—specifically it will reconstruct your body back to its prime state.”

Yaoyorozu, seated across of her looked interested at this. “So your patients have to breathe in your breath to be healed?”

“Yes,” Ryouka nodded at her. “Healing time depends on the injury itself, but I can heal almost anything—even reattaching severed limbs—as long as the wounds are fresh.”

Everyone in the vicinity that was eavesdropping on them oohed at her explanation in awe.

“Isn’t that, like, pretty amazing?” The blond boy with black strips on his hair said in amazement. “Even Recovery Girl can’t do that much, right?”

“Yes. Chiyo-sensei can only speed up her patient’s recovery rate,” Ryouka nodded. “I have my limit though as my Quirk will eat up my energy. Heal too many people or too severe an injury, I’ll pass out.”

Everyone nodded in understanding at that.

“D-does that mean you have to k-kiss them?” The girl, Uraraka if she remembered correctly, asked with a bright pink blush on her cheeks. Ryouka smiled inwardly. What a pure girl.

Ryouka nodded at her as she played with her pendant again.

“That is the easiest method for me to heal people, true,” she answered with slight amusement as the kids’ faces which suddenly turned red too when her words finally registered on their virgin minds.

“A kiss…!” She heard the grape-looking midget whispered in reverence as he looked at her chest area with extreme interest and Ryouka narrowed her eyes in distaste. How vulgar.

The rest of the bus ride to their location was filled with various questions from the excitable children that composed almost the entirety of 1-A students. Ryouka was grilled thoroughly about the circumstances that landed her there and they provided their own info of their own accord in exchange for hers.

They were an excitable and friendly bunch. All Might was right. They were good kids.

When they were finally satisfied with her answers, they went to gossip about their own classmates. Coincidentally, that familiar green-haired boy she saw on her first day was a student of 1-A too and if she interpreted the subtle glances he was sending her correctly, it seemed that he recognized her too.

“…Well, if you’re talking about flashy and strong, it’s gotta be Todoroki and Bakugou right?!” the boisterous redhead that she remembered was named Kirishima said loudly and a blond boy with a sour face clicked his tongue in irritation.

Ryouka frowned.

Strangely, his face was also familiar to her. Where did she saw them before though?

“Bakugou’s always mad, so he doesn’t seem like he’ll be popular though,” quipped Asui, the adorable frog-like girl, causing the blond from before, Bakugou, to jump out of his seat yelling threats at her.

At his roars, Ryouka suddenly remembered.

Bakugou Katsuki.

Midoriya Izuku.

They were a year behind her in middle school.

She remembered that Bakugou was a terrible loudmouth who used to bully Midoriya, who was a small and skinny Quirkless kid who loved to make observations about Pro Heroes and mumble creepily in the hallways. He changed so much since she saw him last that she didn’t recognize who he was.

She vividly remembered that one time that she spotted Midoriya behind the gym storage, nursing the burns that was inflicted on his arm by the loudmouth bully—burns that would have disfigured the green haired boy’s arm for life if she didn’t heal him so quickly.

That memory instantly made Ryouka hate the blond. She _hated_ bullies.

But… this realization brought something to her attention.

_Midoriya Izuku… you were supposed to be Quirkless._

“Quirkless?” Kirishima said suddenly.

Oh. Did she say that out loud?

“Oh, so I was right!” Midoriya exclaimed with a gasp. “You are _that_ Ibuki-senpai, right?”

Ryouka eyed him for a moment before she nodded.

“If you mean your upperclassman from middle school, you are correct,” Ryouka confirmed to the green haired boy who beamed at her.

“I knew it! I thought it was you, but you look so different than you were back then so I wasn’t sure,” Midoriya babbled sheepishly as he made strange gestures with his arms. “I always wanted to thank you for healing me, but you were so good at disappearing back then and no one could find you when you didn’t want to be bothered, so I haven’t got the chance to do it.”

“It’s fine, I don’t mind,” Ryouka nodded at him again to drop the subject.

“Wait wait wait!!!” the blond with the black stripe, Kaminari, suddenly exclaimed. “Midoriya, you were Quirkless?!”

Oh yeah. She was curious about this too.

“Oh… that’s…” Midoriya stuttered nervously as he scratched the back of his head. “My Quirk manifested… really late? I got it just before the entrance exam, actually.”

Kirishima gaped at his answer. “Seriously?! Man, talk about lucky!”

“Yeah, and your Quirk is so powerful too!” Uraraka chimed in with excitement.

Midoriya’s classmates continued to grill him about his Quirk, and the boy gave half-hearted answers that he answered with a hint of panic and nervousness.

Ryouka’s eyes narrowed.

_“Your Quirk reminded me of All Might,”_ she remembered Asui quipping about it earlier. It might have been a simple compliment as the boy was infamous for being an All Might _otaku,_ but…

 

_…Could it be?_

 

Before Ryouka could continue on that train of thought though, the bus had stopped in front of a dome-like building that somehow resembled a famous theme park in Osaka. Everyone got off the bus quickly, chattering in excitement as Aizawa herded them inside the massive building where Ryouka’s homeroom teacher, Thirteen, stood to welcome them.

“It’s Space Hero, No. Thirteen! He’s the gentlemanly Hero who has rescued tons of people from disasters!” Midoriya gushed, seemingly vibrating with excitement in his place.

"Let's go inside without delay!" Thirteen waved at them in greeting and gestured towards the building. Everyone cheered at this and followed the spacesuit-wearing teacher excitedly inside.

“Wow, it looks like USJ!”

“Shipwreck, landslide, fire, windstorm, et cetera—It's a training ground that I made with different types of accidents and disasters,” Thirteen began, making a grand gesture towards the area he specified before he finished proudly, “It's called the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or USJ for short!”

“It really is USJ...”

Ryouka’s lips involuntarily quirked upwards at the faces of the students. Before Thirteen could say more though, Aizawa pulled him aside and whispered something to him.

“Thirteen. I have words from Ibuki that All Might can’t come today,” the rugged-looking teacher said with exasperation in his face as he put up 3 of his fingers. At his words, Thirteen laughed cheerily.

“That’s so like him!” Thirteen giggled, covering the lower half of his mask with his hands like someone would do to their mouth when they’re laughing. “But it’s fine isn’t it? We have back up plan in case something like this happen.”

Aizawa let out a long sigh before he shook his head. “It can't be helped. Shall we begin?”

Thirteen nodded before he perked up, remembering something. “Ah, wait! Before we begin, let me say one thing. Er… or two. Or three.”

Her homeroom teacher continued to talk, addressing the first years. Ryouka wasn’t paying attention to it though. Instead, she opted to observe her surroundings.

Like what her homeroom teacher said before, the dome-like building was divided into several areas all having different types of accident and disaster simulation. Everything was incredibly detailed and real and Ryouka was once again left amazed. She have lived a lot of lives in a lot of different and strange worlds, but this was the first time she ever saw something like this. For everything to be completely man-made with no magic involved was just incredible.

She continued to look around, humming slightly in appreciation when she saw something _crackled_ to existence in front of the fountain at the plaza just below the stairs.

_What in the world…_

“…this class is a fresh start. You shall learn how to use your Quirks to save people's lives. You do not have powers so you can harm others. I hope you leave here with the understanding that you have powers in order to help others."

She faintly heard the words spacesuit-wearing Hero said in the background, but she couldn’t discern it what with her attention stolen by that thing that grew wider and wider by the second and looked vaguely like a… portal…

In that very instant, chill ran down her spine.

"Aizawa-sensei!"

She shouted loudly, calling everyone to attention just as the lamps around the building suddenly turned off on their own. The scraggly teacher turned around quickly and saw what she was seeing. Realizing what was happening right under their noses, he immediately dropped to a defensive stance and barked orders at his students.

"Gather together and don't move!" Aizawa ordered, his voice tense. "Thirteen, protect the students."

That portal-looking thing in front of the fountain expanded far and wide like a black mist. One by one, people Ryouka had never seen started trickling out of it, all of them wore identical cruel grin that stretched wide on their faces.

Ryouka narrowed her eyes at the sight, realizing what they were as Thirteen turned around to see what had made them so on edge so suddenly.

"What's that?" Kirishima asked, leaning closer to the edge of the stairs. "Is this like the entrance exam where the lesson's already started?"

"Don't move!" Aizawa shouted at him. "Those are villains."

Ryouka heard the most of the students gasped in disbelieve, distress etched in their innocent young faces. In front of the fountain, a gaunt man with many fake-hands attached on his person stepped out of the mist with a large creature following closely behind him.

Aizawa clicked his tongue in irritation.

“The trespassing the other day was the work of these scumbags after all, huh?” he muttered as they watched the Villains creeping closer to the edge of the stairs. Thirteen nodded, agreeing with him. At Aizawa’s words, Ryouka suddenly remembered the incident during lunch time several days ago.

_‘So that was them’,_ she thought, realization coming on to her.

If they were the one who trespassed the other day, it meant that they’ve been planning for this attack for days, at the very least. They must have some kind of objective that they’re confident they can accomplish—otherwise they won’t be so arrogant as to invade the nest of some of the best Pro Heroes to ever exist.

“Sensei, what about the trespasser sensors?” Yaoyorozu asked, looking worried as she stepped closer to the teacher.

Thirteen shook his helmet at her. “We have them, of course, but…”

“Did they only appear here or around the whole school?” a deep but boyish voice said suddenly. Ryouka turned and saw it was the boy with half-red half-white hair and a tacky costume—s _he forgot his name_ —who was the one speaking.

“An isolated area separated from the main campus during a time when a class is supposed to be held here,” the boy continued. “They might be fools, but they’re not dumb. This surprise attack was carefully planned with some sort of goal in mind.”

Yeah, that was what Ryouka thought too! Tacky though his costume might be, this boy was smart.

Ryouka was about to suggest they evacuate from the building while they still can when suddenly a black void appeared on the floor beneath her feet. Before she could voice her surprise, a hand came out from inside the void and enclosed itself around her ankle.

_No fricking way. Are you even serious right now._

Ryouka yelped as the hand suddenly pulled her under in an alarmingly fast pace and tried to kick the hand off her, but the hand stubbornly held on. Sinking further into the void, Ryouka urgently stretched out her hand to Aizawa whose eyes had widened when he realized what was happening to her.

“Sensei—!”

“Ibuki—”

Aizawa dashed towards her in an instant and tried grab her outstretched hand, but just as his fingers grazed hers, it was too late already.

She had been completely swallowed by the void.

**No. 6 Storm — End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That’s it for this time! Thank you so much for reading!


	7. No. 7 Ibuki Ryouka

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know what, I lied about this chapter being the conclusion of the USJ Arc, but hey, it’s too long for one chapter! This chapter is almost 4500 words and it only reached the halfway point of the USJ Arc. That the complete one would take about 10,000 words! But anyway I’m pretty satisfied with this chapter so I hope you like it too! Enjoy this kinda longer chapter!! 
> 
> Just a warning that Shigaraki will be a bit creepy at the beginning though. I have no idea how to write him since he’s childish, immature, mean, sadistic, unnerving, but kinda smart at the same time. He’s a complicated character so I won’t be surprised if I failed to portray his character properly. 
> 
> (Also, unless I specified what Ryouka’s current expression is, assume that she’s making a flat, uninterested face lol.)

When the darkness swallowed her, Ryouka thought that she was done for.

Like, that was it. Her 27th life, ended prematurely because she was grown too lax in her old age. What a pathetic end for someone as great as her, she had thought dryly, but instead of death she was dropped from mid-air and landed on all fours with a pained grunt in the heart of the Villains’ midst.

_Shit, that hurts,_ Ryouka grouched inwardly, wincing in pain.

As she rubbed her hands to lessen the pain, someone crouched in front of her and grabbed her chin roughly and lifted her head forcibly to meet them.

Suppressing a wince at the pain his grip caused her, Ryouka levelled a stare at the man with the many disembodied hands clasped on his body as he checked her face—and with scepticism, if what little expression she could see behind his “mask” was true.

He turned her face to the right, left, and up before Ryouka finally got tired of being manhandled and slapped his hand away from her face.

“Hey hey… that hurts, woman,” the gaunt Villain muttered without any real heat. He lazily rubbed the hand that she just slapped as he craned his neck to speak to someone behind him—a well-dressed Villain with dense black mist for a body.

“Heeey Kurogiri… are you sure this is her?” Hand-Face drawled with such a lazy tone that it honestly irked Ryouka quite a bit. Like, hey, _you’re_ the one who kidnapped her! At least act interested or something.

“I am, Shigaraki Tomura,” the man with the black mist Quirk, apparently named Kurogiri, answered with a surety in his voice.

His glowing yellow eyes seemed to pierce her with his gaze as he looked her over with a nod. “Her appearance may be different from the photographs we have of her, but _he_ had confirmed it himself. This is the owner of the Quirk: Spring of Life.”

Shigaraki Tomura, the Hand-Face, hummed as he glanced her over once again, still sceptical.

“Well, if _he_ said so,” Shigaraki shrugged before he turned to face her again.

Slowly, he put his hand on the hand that he had on his face and pulled it off, revealing a fairly young face that was honestly pretty horrible to look at. Cracked lips, unhealthy complexion, and what was all those wrinkles around his eyes? It made her want to shudder.

Ryouka almost grimaced as he revealed his face, but it seemed that she didn’t quite manage to completely hide her distaste, a fact that the man in front of her seem to found amusing, seeing that he was looking at her with amusement.

“Hey, Spring of Life… won’t you join us? We have no healer, see?” the man asked casually, smiling down at her.

Ryoula narrowed her eyes at him, finally seeing where they were going for.

“No,” Ryouka answered finally, after some time in a staring contest with the Villain. “In the first place, don’t you have any manners? Is this how you recruit people to join your cause? Not even an introduction or an offer to pull me up first?”

Shigaraki smiled widely at her response.

“Feisty,” he said, voice gentle but in a mocking tone. “Well, whether you accept or not, we’ll have your Quirk in the end anyway, one way or another. The alternative is less… _pleasant_ for you though. I’ve been told by the survivors that it left them feeling cold—like half of your soul is missing from your body.”

Shigaraki gave her a small, friendly smile. “So what do you think? Isn’t it better to just join us?”

Ryouka opened her mouth to retort, but didn’t get the chance to when suddenly the smaller Villains around them began to scream in pain as the sound of bodies hitting the ground resonate from the middle of the plaza.

When she whipped her head towards the source of the noises, she saw Aizawa was beating them group by group with one of the most unique fighting style Ryouka had ever seen anyone using. It was honestly very impressive.

All of a sudden, an arm had snaked around her stomach and suddenly Ryouka was hauled away from where she was just kneeling on the floor as several knives were thrown at Shigaraki by the teacher. Ryouka hissed in pain from being manhandled around like that, but Shigaraki only tightened his grip on her as he put the hand— _mask_?—back on his face with his other hand.

“Oops, that was close. You’re fast, Eraser Head,” Shigaraki said, his voice shaking slightly in what seemed to be exhilaration.

In contrast to the Villain’s good mood, the corner of Aizawa’s mouth tightened seeing the way Shigaraki was touching her. Ryouka imagined that under his goggles he must be glaring daggers at the Villain.

“Take your hands off her.”

Aizawa growled lowly, reaching for his bandages—his weapons, apparently—and fell into a fighting stance when said Villain suddenly clicked his tongue in mock disappointment.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Shigaraki asked softly as the arm that he snaked around her stomach tightened and pulled her back flush onto his chest while his other hand crept across her chest and found its way onto her neck—gripping it tightly with only four of his fingers.

Ryouka just stiffened her body so she didn’t move accidentally, knowing that something was strange about the way he was touching her. Touch-related Quirk? Probably something that required all five of the fingers on his hand.

“One step closer and I’ll disintegrate her. It’ll be a shame if a pretty girl like her turned to dust, won’t it?” the Villain crooned softly, pressing his mouth against Ryouka’s hair, ignoring the way Ryouka turned her head, trying to get away from him.

Aizawa’s eyes flashed red as he activated his Quirk in his anger, his hair raising upwards as he prepared himself to fight Shigaraki.

“You bastard—” Aizawa growled, but before he could say anything else or act, the Villain’s cronies had teamed up again and tried to jump him from behind. Ryouka used this moment to elbow Shigaraki’s stomach to get him to release her neck and shouted a warning to the teacher.

“Sensei, behind you!”

Aizawa glanced at his back and jumped away instantly, narrowly avoiding a punch from a big-bodied Villain that destroyed the floor that he was just standing on.

“Tch—”

Barely breathing her relief, Ryouka found Shigaraki’s hand gripping her jaw tightly once again as the blue-haired Villain let out a pained hiss at her struggle.

“Now that wasn’t very nice of you was it, Spring of Life?” Shigaraki said lazily, his voice carrying a just hint of annoyance. “If you don’t behave I’m afraid I might accidentally disintegrate you, you know? I’ve promised him that I’ll take you to him mostly unharmed, so don’t make me break my promise.”

Ryouka narrowed her eyes and tried her best to glare at him despite the awkward neck angle.

“Go fuck yourself.”

“Sssh, be quiet. I want to watch this,” Shigaraki shushed her, not acknowledging her retort.

“Eraser Head’s annoying, isn’t he? Not only he’s strong in hand-to-hand combat, since he's hiding his eyes with goggles you can't tell whose Quirk he's erasing. When he fights against a group, it makes it harder for them to work together to take him down.”

There was a pause as Shigaraki observed the unkempt-looking Hero fight his followers with what Ryouka thought was attentiveness. Aizawa fought with quick movements; brutal, effective, and none of them wasting unnecessary energy.

“Pro Heroes are so unlikeable. Normal people don't stand a chance against them,” Shigaraki mused, sulking, before suddenly his tone changed completely as he squished her cheeks playfully. “Good for him I’m not normal, right?”

_This man’s insane_ , Ryouka thought with an internal groan. Why was she in this situation, again? Shit. She should have never gotten up from bed this morning. She knew her bad feeling had never been wrong before, but this was the first time the situation was so bad she got taken hostage by a Villain.

Ryouka breathed out slowly, trying to think of a possible solution for this maddening situation that wouldn’t end up making everything worse than they already were.

You know what, let’s make him talk. Maybe that would work.

“Hey. Shigaraki, was it?” Ryouka began, calmly. “Why are you here, exactly?"

She heard him chuckle softly behind her as his fingers danced on her jawline, teasing her with the scenario of what would happen if he used his Quirk on her. “Why, to come and get you, of course! What else could be more important than that?"

Ryouka scoffed quietly.

“I doubt it. Do you think I'm stupid?” She said through gritted teeth. “If you just wanted me, why would you bother breaking into one of the most guarded place in Japan with all of these people? I commute here from home. Just snatch me on the streets or something, it'll be easier for you. No, I'm just the extra aren’t I? The extra, and a _tool_ for you to get to your true objective.”

Even though Ryouka couldn’t see it, she could feel it when the Villain holding her captive smile against the back her head.

“You’re smart,” Shigaraki declared suddenly as he rested his chin on the top of her head. “I like you, Spring of Life. And because I like you, I'll tell you why we're here.”

Clutching her closer, he whispered to her as if it was a great secret:

“We're going to kill the Symbol of Peace today."

…Did she heard that right?

“All Might?”

Ryouka narrowed her eyes.

All Might was the strongest Hero alive and he wasn’t No. 1 just because of popularity alone—it was because no Villain ever defeated him in a fight and probably no one ever will. The power he possess seemed almost _infinite,_ it was unthinkable for anyone to even believe they could defeat him, let alone kill him.

Even though he was now physically unfit, it was a closely guarded secret of the nation. These Villains couldn’t have known that, and yet they wanted to kill him? Either they were extremely stupid or they have something that made them truly believe they could win.

She hoped they were just stupid, but…

Shigaraki nodded against the top of her head. “That’s right… according to the information we got the other day he’s supposed to be here today, you see…”

Ryouka shook her head. “All Might said he won’t come today.”

_That’s why, please leave._

“Huh… wonder why…” Shigaraki hummed softly behind her before Ryouka felt the hand holding her neck moved and her head was suddenly being tilted sideways to face him. Seeing her blank stare, the Villain grinned widely before he leaned closer to her ear and whispered, “ _Is it because of his time limit?_ ”

Ryouka’s eyes widened at his words. _How—_

Shigaraki’s grin widened, satisfied seeing her reaction that basically confirmed his suspicion and Ryouka stiffened, her mind racing.

They knew. They knew of All Might’s secret. They probably knew of her real role too, which was why they took her first, believing she couldn’t fight back. If she wasn’t there to heal him then—

…Wait.

They knew of his secret.

Then…

 

 

_“_ _They must have some kind of objective that they’re confident they can accomplish—otherwise they won’t be so arrogant as to invade the nest of some of the best Pro Heroes to ever exist.”_

_“They might be fools, but they’re not dumb. This surprise attack was carefully planned with some sort of goal in mind.”_

_“Either they were extremely stupid or they have something that made them truly believe they could win.”_

 

 

_Oh._

Ryouka’s blood suddenly felt cold as Shigaraki let out a small, unnerving chuckle. Still with a satisfied smile, he gestured at some of his followers to come closer and Ryouka was unceremoniously shoved into the arms of two Villains with mutant-type Quirks.

“Take care of her for a while,” Shigaraki ordered the two Villains before he walked slowly before broke into a run midway, muttering some random numbers as he approached Aizawa who was jumping into the air and used his bandage-like weapon to tie up some villains that attacked him.

_“24 seconds…”_

When he noticed Shigaraki approaching him, he jumped back cautiously before he threw his capturing weapon at him. Shigaraki caught the fabric and pulled it hard, but Aizawa wasn’t backing out and let himself be pulled towards the villain.

_“23 seconds…”_

“Let go of my student!” Aizawa growled, running towards Shigaraki with a fist in hand.

_“20 seconds…”_

Ryouka, who had been trying to understand Shigaraki’s nonsensical muttering finally realized that it wasn’t just random numbers. That moment where Aizawa’s hair was down—he had been counting the seconds. Ryouka felt like an idiot for not realizing sooner.

“Sensei—!”

Ryouka shouted, trying to warn the teacher, but it was too late. Just as Shigaraki muttered, “ _17 seconds_ ,” under his breath, Aizawa had pulled the Villain into his orbit and ducked as he dug his elbow into the Villain’s stomach.

Ryouka suddenly heard a relieved gasp from a distance and she whipped her head at the direction of the voice in surprise. She gaped, seeing the three heads peeking up at the fight from the surface of the water area.

Midoriya. Asui. That grape-looking pervert from the bus. Why were those three there instead of somewhere safe, seeking shelter?!

Another gasp brought Ryouka’s attention towards Aizawa once more. The teacher’s elbow that he had used to hit Shigaraki was caught in the Villain’s grasp and suddenly it began to crack and crack and finally, it crumbled into small particles, revealing the muscles underneath the skin as well as the bone inside, all while the Villain was whispering something at him—the weakness of his Quirk, most probably. The man _did_ love taunting people.

Aizawa finally managed to break free of his trap, but he was immediately swarmed by the small fries again.

Shit, shit. Everything suddenly went from bad to worse. Everything happened so fast. _Too fast_.

Ryouka bit her lower lip. Even if he was a Pro Hero, Aizawa’s stamina wasn’t unlimited. On top of that, his injury was severe. At this rate, if he insisted on keep fighting, he’ll run out of blood sooner than later.

Ryouka couldn’t hear their conversation since Shigaraki’s voice was too dang soft, but suddenly he opened his arms wide and let out another one of his eerie laugh.

“You’re so cool… you’re so _cool_ , Eraser Head! But you know what…” Shigaraki paused for a heartbeat before he smiled widely beneath his mask.

“ _I’m not the last boss._ ”

At those words, all of a sudden the mysterious black figure Ryouka saw that time the Villains got there appeared behind Aizawa. It was so fast that Ryouka could only barely see it move, and when the teacher turned around to see what it was—

 

_Splat._

 

 

 

 

Blood splattered onto the ground.

There was a clutter as Aizawa’s goggles hit the floor, having been thrown to the air as that thing punched his head with inhuman strength.

Aizawa let out a pained cry as he tried to defend himself, but he was clearly outmatched. In an instant, the Hero was on the floor, barely clinging to life as that black _thing_ pounded his body mercilessly with its fist. Letting out an inhuman screech, it took Aizawa’s right arm and broke it in its hand—as easily as someone would crush a dry leaf.

Beneath the monster, Aizawa’s battered body looked incredibly frail.

Seeing the still body of the teacher shaking from the pain he must have been in, Ryouka gritted her teeth, struggling from the grip of her captors who were holding her tightly by the arms.

“ _Sensei_ —!”

The blue haired Villain approached the incapacitated Hero, ignoring her shout.

“I’ll tell you, Eraser Head,” Shigaraki began, his voice holding a hint of smugness. “He’s the anti-Symbol of Peace, the bioengineered ‘Noumu’.”

The monster— _Noumu_ —tightened his grip on Aizawa’s arm, making it broke even more.

Aizawa screamed.

Shigaraki let out a soft smile beneath his mask hearing the Hero scream. “You can erase Quirks. That's wonderful, but it's nothing impressive in the face of overwhelming power. You might as well be Quirkless.”

The Noumu grabbed Aizawa’s head and slammed it onto the ground.

Seeing the red pool that seeped out from underneath his head, Ryouka finally couldn’t stay silent anymore. She might be playing the role of the helpless healer, but she couldn’t watch this without doing anything anymore. Aizawa could seriously die if the Noumu did any more damage to him.

Aizawa’s screams rang inside her mind and she closed her eyes.

Fuck.

“Shigaraki!” She yelled at the Villain, catching his attention. “Stop this! Why are you doing this? Your goal is All Might, isn't it? Leave everyone else alone!”

_Distract him, distract him, Ryouka…!_

The Villains restraining her panicked and tried to calm her down, whispering that it wasn’t a good idea to make their boss mad, but Ryouka didn’t care anymore. There were no way she could stand this. Fuck this man. Let him come to her if he wanted. She could handle it as long as they leave Aizawa alone.

Shigaraki just turned towards her, looking at her in confusion as he let the Noumu slam Aizawa’s head into the ground again.

“Now why should I do that?” Shigaraki asked, tilting his head. “It's All Might's fault, you know. If you want to blame someone, blame All Might because he didn't follow the plan. And after I went through all the trouble of bringing this many people and the Noumu along… don't you think I deserve at least a little fun before we left?”

Ryouka seethed at his answer. What the hell was wrong with this guy?

“You sick bastard…”

The Villain just smirked at her behind his mask.

“Just sit tight and enjoy the show, Spring of Life,” Shigaraki said. Before him, the Noumu continued to bash Aizawa into the ground mercilessly without an ounce of feelings. Seeing Ryouka’s glare, he opened his arms wide again, taunting her with another smile.

His smile didn’t survive long.

There was distortion in the air beside Shigaraki that now Ryouka could identify as Kurogiri’s warp forming, and true enough, a second later Kurogiri was standing beside the blue-haired Villain.

“Shigaraki Tomura,” the black mist greeted respectfully, but Shigaraki just turned to look at him with disinterested expression on his face.

“Kurogiri. Did you kill Thirteen already?”

“I put Thirteen out of action, but there were students that I was unable to disperse and one of them was able to run away,” Kurogiri answered, sounding a bit hesitant than Ryouka ever heard him before. Probably because he knew just how unstable his partner-in-crime was.

There was a silence as Kurogiri’s words registered in their minds.

Ryouka raised her head at that at the same time Shigaraki voiced his disbelief. Someone managed to escape—that meant help was coming. She glanced at Aizawa’s tired, bloodied form which was trembling lightly from the pain. He was breathing heavily and looked like he couldn’t move anymore.

Ryouka bit her lip.

A deep, irritated grunting brought her attention back towards Shigaraki, who had been scratching at his neck in increasing agitation since the warp gate user revealed that he had accidentally let someone escape.

“We can't win against dozens of Pros,” the Villain complained loudly, petulantly, as he suddenly stopped scratching. “Aah, it's game over this time.”

Shigaraki sounded terribly like a child who didn’t get something he wanted then, especially when he said about _game over._

Ryouka gritted her teeth in irritation, remembering the fear in the children’s eyes and the way Aizawa screamed as that Noumu monster crushed his arm and bashed his head repeatedly against the ground. Was all that just a _game_ to him?

He sighed, turning to Kurogiri.

“Should we go home?”

Ryouka’s eyes widened. They’re retreating?

She scanned Shigaraki’s body language and narrowed her eyes. No, there were no way he was just going to accept ‘failure’ without getting something in return after everything that happened. He won’t be satisfied just torturing some Underground Hero whose face wasn’t even known to the public.

No, he’d want something grander than that.

“Oh, yeah,” Shigaraki suddenly said, turning towards the three children on the water. “Before we leave, let's smash some of his pride as the Symbol of Peace!”

 

 

_“Take your hands off her.”_

_“Let go of my student!”_

 

 

_Fuck._ Okay.

Ryouka closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.

When Shigaraki ran towards Asui with his arms outstretched, before Aizawa could even raise his head to freeze his Quirk, before Midoriya could sacrifice himself to protect his friend, suddenly a solid wall of yellowish light sprung into life in front of the frog-like girl and Shigaraki’s hand hit it instead.

The wall sparked a little, but it didn’t budge and continued to glow in front of her, seemingly resistant to his Quirk.

“What?!” Shigaraki hissed, looking at his hand in disbelief. “Who is it?!”

A movement from his peripheral vision left him leaping back and called the Noumu to his side just as Midoriya jumped out of the water and tried to punch him with a loud yell of ‘ _Smash!’._ The force of his punch created a giant shockwave that swept the entire building—making some of the fallen bodies of the Villains flew and all the light bulbs in the building crash.

Taking advantage of the situation, Ryouka stepped on the shoe of one of the Villain restraining her arms with her heeled boots forcefully, causing him to yell in pain and release his hold on the arm he was holding on.

Using the opportunity to twist her other arm around to face the second Villain, she swept his feet off with a kick to the back of his ankles and quickly shook her hands to stimulate blood flow there before she punched the first one, who had just recovered, with her knuckles in quick successions to the stomach.

She didn’t give the man the chance to recover, immediately twisting her body and kicked his chest and jaw with her right feet swiftly—the force of her kick caused the Villain to fly several meters back before he fell to the ground with an audible thump, unconscious.

The other Villain squeaked, looking at her with alarm as he laid nervously on the ground, not having the courage to stand back up and face her like his partner did.

“Stay down there if you don’t want me to do the same thing to you,” Ryouka told him in a low tone, and the Villain nodded vigorously, quickly agreeing with her.

She patted down her clothes to smooth down any rumples that might be there from the brief fight before she turned back to the main perpetrators that were responsible for this horrible day she was having and found Shigaraki was scratching his neck again as he looked at her.

“Oi, oi… no one told me she could do that,” the Villain muttered, his voice seemingly unsteady in a show of his increasing agitation. “How unfair… you’re cheating, Spring of Life…”

“You’re not playing fair yourself. Why should I?” Ryouka scoffed at him. “Besides, I never said that healing is the extent of my ability.”

She didn’t bother to see their reaction to her retort. Instead, she examined her fists. It was hurting already—and just from punching those cronies, too.

_That wasn’t good_ , she thought.

She might have remembered how to fight, but her current body was untrained and therefore unsuitable for something this extreme right off the bat.

She had to… _cheat,_ then.

“You know, Shigaraki? I don’t want to be a Hero. I never wanted to,” she began to speak as she walked towards them, the heels of her boots clicked loudly against the floor to distract them from the fact that the pendant on her chest was beginning to glow with a dim light.

“But,” she continued, “I will not stand down watching someone getting tortured and killed in front of me.”

Ryouka stopped just in front of Aizawa’s body and looked down on the blood pooling underneath his still form.

_How cruel,_ she thought as she crouched down beside him. Gently, she turned his body and propped his upper body against hers. This man was almost killed trying to protect his students—to protect _her_.

She might not need his protection, but that didn’t mean that his actions were useless.

No, it had moved her heart.

“Ibuki…” Aizawa croaked hoarsely. “Stop—no, it’s dangero—”

“Ssh. That’s enough, Sensei. You can rest now,” she said, softly, before she pressed her lips against his. He resisted at first, still trying to speak, but Ryouka managed to pry his mouth open and breathed out her Life into him.

She winced when she immediately felt tired as her energy was sucked by her Quirk. The teacher’s injuries weren’t something to scoff at. Multiple broken bones all over his body that probably pierced his internal organs too, cuts, bruises, and loss of blood. It would take a while for him to recover enough to join the fight again, but at least he’ll live.

Ryouka pulled away and looked into his eyes.

There were so many words in that one gaze from him. Mostly something like ‘ _don’t you dare do this_ ’ or ‘ _just run the fuck away you stupid girl_ ’, but Ryouka decided to pretend that she didn’t get what his gaze meant.

Instead, she smiled at him.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be alright,” she promised as she laid him back down and stood back up on her feet. Looking down at him, she waved a hand over him and a dome of pale yellow light similar to the wall she created for Asui materialized, encasing his body with her protection.

“I’ll take over from here.”

Looking at the furious Villains, she took a deep breath before she smirked at them.

“Come at me, Shigaraki!”

She yelled, cracking her knuckles as fire gathered on her hands.

**No. 7 Ibuki Ryouka — End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell that I love Aizawa? Because I _love_ him. He’s such a great character whether it’s as a person, a Hero, or a teacher.
> 
> I love him.
> 
> Thank you everyone for reading as always! Thanks for being patient with me as well, sorry I haven’t replied to many of the reviews from last chapter! I’ll do it as soon as I can, I promise!


	8. No. 8  A Promise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, here’s the actual conclusion of this Arc! I hope you like it because I sure do! Like last chapter, I’m also pretty satisfied with this one. There will be a lot of (*) in this chapter. Everything will be explained in the too-dang-long ending note, but it’s not that important so you may skip it if you don’t want to read it. Enjoy this really long chapter (6,3K words!!), everyone!!
> 
> Also, funny story, I was listening to “[ **tanh1**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aIm9nnMaqg)” from Thunderbolt Fantasy OST on repeat during the beginning in this chapter and I thought, ‘well now, that’s pretty badass!!’ and then when I reread it again without the music that scene became so much tamer I got confused lol.
> 
> Warning: I only checked everything once so don’t complain about grammar being off. Sorry for that!

_She had to…_ cheat _then,_ Ryouka thought.

The ruby on her chest glowed a pale light in response to her thoughts, already filling with her magic so that she could use it in a moment’s notice. She glanced at Midoriya, Asui, and the other kid, and took a deep breath seeing them trying to run away to a safe distance as she walked towards Aizawa’s bloodied form.

Okay. She couldn’t go the subtler route then.

As she healed Aizawa, she wracked her brain. Now how should she do this? She needed something flashy that would draw everyone’s eyes on her so that no one will pay attention on the kids or Aizawa. Something flashy, but quick and wouldn’t put her pendant under too much pressure.

Coming to a decision, she let her magic rush across her entire body—filling in every space from her head to the very tips of her toes, enhancing them with her own rendition of Light Shield to strengthen her body and make it impervious to most harm as well as Wings of God to make her movements as fast and as light as the wind.*

She stood back up and casted a dome of Borg to protect Aizawa, before she took a deep breath and smirked at the furious Villains.*

 

 

_“Come at me, Shigaraki!”_

 

 

 

Ryouka yelled, cracking her knuckles, fire gathering on her hands as the Noumu ran towards her in a speed that could only be described as inhuman.

Not intimidated by the display of strength, Ryouka jumped forward, rushing towards it to meet it halfway before she punched hard on its chest with her burning hand. A burst of fire exploded upon contact and engulfed both of them, the force of her punch caused the Noumu to skid a few meters back.  

Ryouka watched as her fire danced on the monster’s black skin, seemingly burning the monster, but a moment later the Noumu had recovered and came running after her again.

Ryouka clicked her tongue as she jumped back to evade its attacks. Her Wildfire Stance was one of the most powerful close range fighting style she knew. It was capable of destroying a Magitek Armor with only one hit and yet it did virtually no damage to the Noumu even with her currently enhanced strength.*

Resistant to blunt force then. Probably shock absorbent.

“Noumu…!” Shigaraki hissed, raising his arm towards her.

Ryouka glanced at him. The Villain looked pissed—probably displeased that his toy still haven’t caught her yet even though it was supposed to be a weapon that could kill All Might. 

Responding to its master’s unspoken command, the Noumu tried to catch her, but she leapt back just in time and the Noumu ended up crushing the floor where she just stood at. It ran after her, trying to attack again, but thanks to Wings of God, Ryouka was faster than the monster’s speed.

_If blunt force didn’t work_ , she thought as she continued to evade the Noumu’s punches. _Let’s try something sharper then._

Sidestepping the Noumu’s attack, she plucked a strand of her hair and transfigured the strand into a slender one-handed sword.

Ignoring Shigaraki’s disbelieve and aggravation at her casual display of magic, Ryouka dived forward and swung her sword at the Noumu who tried to evade her attacks at first, but seeing how fast she was it quickly abandoned the idea and just put up its hands to block them.

Her call was right then—sharp objects worked better as she could see the inches deep gash her sword left on its hands, yet similarly to the time when she punched it earlier, the Noumu acted like as if it wasn’t hurt at all.

Incredibly thick skin then, or maybe high muscle density.

That would explain its power and why it seemed like it didn’t have the ability to feel pain.

She took advantage of its defensive stance to inflict as many hits as she could—leaving behind tiny gashes across the monster’s arms and legs, but suddenly the Noumu swung its arms at her. Too late to jump back, Ryouka crossed her arms to protect her head.

The hit sent her flying. She faintly heard someone calling out her name in terror, but she ignored it as she contorted her body in the air so she could land somewhat safely on her feet and ended up sliding several meters across the floor, mostly unharmed excluding the blood dripping down from her forehead and the dull throbbing on both her arms.

She wiped the blood with her sleeve. If she hadn’t cast Light Shield on herself earlier, it probably won’t just be a cut there on her forehead and her arms probably would be in the same state as Aizawa’s earlier.

What a terrifying creature.

“You’re incredible, Spring of Life… but it’s useless,” Shigaraki said, amusement clear in his voice as he motioned for the Noumu to come back to his side. “No matter how much cheat you used, you won’t be able to beat it. We made it specifically for the sole purpose of killing All Might, you know?”

“Wanna bet on that?” Ryouka replied dryly from across the plaza, ignoring his taunt.

Glancing to the side, she saw that Asui had managed to take Midoriya and the Grape-Boy to a safer distance and away from the blue-haired Villain. Another glance saw Aizawa lying on the floor protected by the Borg that she casted on him earlier, safe but unconscious.

They were safe now, but as long as the Villains were here, they won’t be _completely_ safe.

She focused back to her opponent as she casted a Cura on herself to relieve the pain on her arms.

Ryouka couldn’t afford to lose now—not with Aizawa injured, the children in danger, and help still so far away. Even if she couldn’t win, she had to at least stall until the other teachers came for them. Sharp object was effective, but she wasn’t strong enough even with her enhanced strength.

And she was getting tired too.

On top of having her energy sapped away by the use of her Quirk, she had been moving around a lot. She might not seem like she was tired, but she was _._

She had to end the fight quickly.

Shit. Why did she forbid All Might to come here again? Oh right, it was because the idiot just _had_ to waste his Three Hours to solve miniscule incidents instead of saving it for actually important Villain fights like, you know, _the one she was having right now_.

“Why don’t you just give it up?” Shigaraki continued, waving his hand to make the Noumu stay still as he talk. “We’ll still accept you even if you cheated and acted rebelliously like this, you know.”

“Shut up, I’m thinking.”

Ryouka _had_ something in mind that could potentially kill the monster in an instant, but she couldn’t do such a large-scale offensive spell right now. Not only that the spell took time to cast, the focus she had was too weak—it would break under such power and breaking it wasn’t an option she could take right now.

Well, she could do it without a focus of course, but it would take longer than it should if done with one and she need someone to distract the Noumu while she did it. She wasn’t going to risk one of the kids, obviously, and Aizawa was in no condition to do it for her so that idea was a no go.

Alright. Let’s try that again, then.

Sharp objects clearly worked, but it only did a little damage even with her enhanced strength. Well, if her own body wasn’t enough, why don’t we try using the cheat on her weapon too?

The pendant on her chest glowed as she bathed the sword with her magic before she rushed at the monster again. Shigaraki clicked his tongue without any real heat at her stubbornness and yelled for the Noumu to capture her again, but she was determined to end this fight quickly before she ran out of energy.

Deftly evading the its punches, Ryouka rolled sideways and jumped backwards to get out of the Noumu’s range before she threw the sword at its head.

The Noumu dodged the sword easily, but impaling its head wasn’t her intention anyway. Instead, she _pulled_ with her magic and suddenly she was in the air—clutching at the handle of the sword, having warped there following the trajectory of the thrown blade, leaving behind particles of light in her path.*

Holding the sword above her head, she took advantage of the element of surprise and swung the sword as hard as she could as she came down, slashing across the Noumu’s chest—effectively cleaving the monster’s body into two and leaving only a tiny section of its midsection attached.

 

 

 

Blood spurted from the large gap she left in the Noumu’s body, dying her pure white costume with the color red, but she paid it no mind as she jumped back to avoid being crushed by the Noumu’s falling body. Not a second later, the Noumu’s body fell onto the floor with a loud sound that resonated loudly in the silence of the plaza.

Not seeing any more movement from the body, Ryouka finally relaxed her hands slightly. They were trembling a bit, having overexerting her body beyond her current body’s limit.

Thank goodness it worked, Ryouka thought tiredly.

She didn’t know what she would have done if it didn’t work, she felt like she just ran a marathon. She really needed to train her body after this if just that had made her this exhausted. Okay, maybe some of the exhaustion was because she had to heal Aizawa earlier, but still, she was way too out of shape for this kind of stunts.

She should make a proper focus too instead of this poor substitute of a pendant which couldn’t handle too many high-level magic.

Ryouka heard some loud cheers from some distance away and saw the Grape-Boy crying in obvious relief as he clutched at Asui’s chest, while Midoriya broke out into a relieved smile. The small-fry Villains, in turn, looked terrified at her blood-covered form.

“Your weapon can’t even defeat _me,_ and you were hoping to kill All Might with that?” Ryouka scoffed, putting on a face as she swatted the blood from her sword onto the ground with a flick of her arm.

“Your Noumu is no more,” Ryouka began, gesturing to the fallen form of the Noumu as she stared at Shigaraki with an even expression. “You have no way of killing All Might now, the Pro Heroes are on their way here, and then there’s _me_.”

“You know what I can do now. Even if you want to kill the children for the sake of _your_ pride, you can’t. _I won’t let you_ ,” Ryouka told him firmly. “It’s your loss, Shigaraki.”

She knew she probably won’t be able to do much now that she was tired, but they didn’t knew that. They won’t be able to do much anyway—even if she couldn’t fight anymore, doesn’t mean that she couldn’t defend. Her Borg was a sturdy thing and their heavy hitter, the Noumu, was dead so they have no means of breaking her wall anymore.

But, instead of temper tantrums and a threat to kill her that she expected of Shigaraki, the man let out a loud laugh instead.

He laughed so hard that he threw his head back as he clutched his stomach. It was still a raspy and unnerving laugh, but it sounded the most genuine of all his laugh till now.

It sent a cold shiver down her spine.

“As I thought. I like you, Ibuki Ryouka. It’s too bad that you’re on the wrong side. The fact that you can ‘ _defeat’_ the Noumu just makes you more interesting to me than ever,” Shigaraki began, still chuckling lightly before his smile suddenly dropped and he tilted his head to the side.

“Hm… now I wonder if he can _fix_ you if we bring you to him. Your skills are highly valuable, see. It’d be great to have someone like you on our side…” the man continued, one hand on his chin as he scanned her up and down with something akin to fascination.

Ryouka narrowed her eyes at him, not liking that he seem fascinated by her instead of angry that she killed his weapon. They were losing—they should be mad that their plans were foiled, not… _this_.

She couldn’t help but feel that something was very wrong.

“What are you talking about?” She demanded, glaring at the Villain.

She saw Kurogiri hovering uncomfortably beside Shigaraki before the man could answer her, seemingly hesitating as he inched closer towards the blue-haired Villain.

“Shigaraki Tomura, we should retreat now while we still can—”

The mist began before Shigaraki hissed to stop him from saying more.

“ _Silence_ , Kurogiri. Don’t think I’ve forgotten the blunder you make before. Seriously, if you weren’t the warp gate…” Shigaraki grouched before he turned towards Ryouka again, shrugging his shoulders in an indifferent gesture.

“Well, whatever. I don’t think we should dawdle either. That’s why…” he paused for a second to smirk at her, before he said something that made the blood in Ryouka’s veins felt cold;

“ _Noumu_.”

As Shigaraki said that name again, slowly the bloodied body of the Noumu began to rise from the ground with slow movements.

Ryouka’s eyes widened as she saw as the wounds on its arms and the large gash on its chest rapidly mending as it let out an inhuman screech. It had completely healed itself in only seconds and came back to stand on its own two feet as if Ryouka hadn’t cut its body in two just minutes ago.

Ryouka whipped her head incredulously at the smug Shigaraki.

Super regeneration.

_Are you kidding me,_ Ryouka thought in disbelieve.

“We might not be able to get All Might today, but if we could have you our effort won’t be totally wasted, see?” Shigaraki continued as he pulled off his ‘mask’ again to smile at her directly.

“ _So come with us, Ibuki Ryouka_.”

And with that, the Noumu suddenly disappeared from Shigaraki’s side only to appear a second later in front of her with its hand raised in the air. Ryouka put up her hands, barely managing to summon a shield to protect herself just as the Noumu’s hand came down and hit it instead, creating some form of sparks from the magical discharge.

“Break her shield, Noumu. But don’t kill her. She’ll be more interesting alive than dead,” Shigaraki ordered lazily from the sideline as Ryouka struggled to defend herself under the barrage of attacks that the Noumu rain down upon her Borg.

Ryouka gritted her teeth as she was pushed to her knees, straining herself under the weight of the Noumu’s attacks.

Shit, why now when she was already exhausted and the effects of her enchantments have worn off?

In a desperate attempt to push the Noumu back, she threw her sword past her Borg and watch it sink into the monster’s chest, but it only pulled the sword out and throw it to the side before continuing its attacks.

Great. And her Borg was beginning to crack too. Just a few more hits and it will definitely crumble down. Fantastic.

Gritting her teeth, she closed her eyes and braced herself for that final hit that would end everything, but then suddenly something zoomed in on them and hit the Noumu so hard the impact created a huge shockwave that shook the entire building.

“Ibuki-Senpai, run!”

Someone shouted to her amidst all the noises.

Ryouka opened her eyes in surprise and saw Midoriya, standing on a bent and shaking leg that was obviously broken punching the Noumu’s side with an equally shaking hand—which was a fruitless attempt since it had a shock absorbing ability.

The Noumu raised it hand, trying to capture Midoriya’s arm.

Ryouka panicked, remembering just how easily the Noumu crushed Aizawa’s hand earlier and without thinking she grabbed Midoriya’s clothes, pulling him inside her already cracking shield, and pushed him behind her back to protect him as the Noumu raised its hand again towards her.

Fuck. There’re no way it will hold. Why did Midoriya have to try and help her?

Coming to a decision, Ryouka turned around and pushed Midoriya to the ground and draped herself over him so even if the Noumu broke through her protection, at least the one who would be hit was her, not him.

Just as the impact was going to hit, however, suddenly—

 

_Crash._

 

 

Something crashed the entrance gate. In the silence that followed, the sound of shoes against the floor suddenly echoed loudly around the plaza. Everyone simultaneously craned their neck to see the figure that emerged on top of the stairs.

Standing tall and looking enraged at the distress of his students and coworkers, it was—

“All… Might…”

Ryouka’s eyes softened at the sight of his Hero form as Midoriya breathed out his name beneath her.

“It’s fine now!” All Might began, his face contorted in rage as he ripped his blue tie off his neck. “I am here!”

The students cheered, tears in their eyes.

_Finally._

Honestly if Ryouka wasn’t so relieved right now she would start planning the punishment she would give that man for breaking his promise of not coming here today, she thought as the man disappeared from the top of the stairs in a flash.

Ryouka felt a big hand caught her and suddenly she was being carried on All Might’s arm in a one-armed princess carry. Startled, she put her hands around his neck and only noticed Midoriya dangling by his stomach on his other arm as the man put them down beside the unconscious Aizawa and, _somehow_ , Asui and the Grape-Boy too was there too.

Ryouka’s eyes widened as she let go of his neck.

When did he take them all? And she thought _she_ was fast with her Wings of God earlier.

“I’m sorry for being late,” the man said, not facing her as he was too busy glaring at the Villains. “Ibuki-kun, please take young Midoriya and the others somewhere safe. I’m leaving Aizawa-kun to you too. Hurry!”

“All Might!” Midoriya suddenly intervened, looking worried as his eyes darted between the No. 1 Hero and the Noumu. “You can’t. That brain Villain took One Fo—took a punch from me, but he didn’t even twitch.”

All Might paused and turned to them and Ryouka took over from there.

“He had some kind of shock absorbing ability,” she explained as the Villain she mentioned were wobbling around for his ‘mask’, which had somehow fallen to the ground as All Might took all of them.

“Sharp objects can hurt him, but his muscle is really dense so it’s hard to actually cut him. Not to mention his regeneration rate.”

“Super regeneration?” All Might asked and Ryouka nodded.

“Yes. I managed to cut him in two before, yet even when it seem like it had bled to death, at Shigaraki’s command it stand back up again and completely healed itself in just several seconds,” she elaborated before she paused to look directly into All Might’s eyes.

“Shigaraki called him ‘Noumu’. He said that it was a bioengineered weapon designed solely to kill you,” Ryouka warned him. “Don’t be rash, All Might. It’s not very smart and its only attack is punches, but its strength could probably rival yours and the one in control of him, that Shigaraki, isn’t as stupid as he looked.”

Hearing her words, the No. 1 Hero let his enrage expression melt into a reassuring grin as he posed like a school girl about to take a selfie, holding a victory sign to his eye level.

“Young Ibuki!” He bellowed confidently before his voice softened. “It’s fine!”

Ryouka stared up at All Might’s eyes for a while before she nodded her acquiescence and turned towards the children.

“Asui, help me with Aizawa,” she said as she crouched down to support the teacher’s upper body with her shoulder. “Midoriya, come here.”

“Y-yes!” Midoriya answered nervously, throwing a last worried look at All Might as the Hero leapt towards the Noumu, shouting something about _Carolina_ as he attacked.

The boy limped towards her, supported by Asui’s hands before she crouched down to help her with Aizawa’s body.

As they stood up, Ryouka gestured for Midoriya to come closer and without wasting any time, she pressed her lips against his. Immediately she felt her energy being sapped again as she breathed out her Quirk into his lungs to mend his broken leg and arm.

Feeling a bit lightheaded, she pulled away just as the Grape-Boy shakily pointed a finger at Midoriya with an expression of absolute betrayal on his face.

“Midoriya you bastard…!” the small boy said, his voice shaking.

“Ribbit!” Asui gasped in surprise, a pink blush appeared on her cheeks as she saw the exchange very up close, what with she was only several centimeters apart from them. Midoriya himself wasn’t any better than her, his whole face lighting up as he tried to cover his face with his arms.

“Ibuki-S-Senpai!” he said in embarrassment. “That’s too sudden!”

Ryouka ruffled his hair with her free hand and smiled a little at his reaction.

“It’s just a small kiss. Come on, let’s go while All Might deals with that bastard. You, Grape-Boy, help Midoriya out while his legs heals,” Ryouka told them and they were quick to snap out of it to follow her towards the stairs.

“Grape-Boy…” the smaller boy murmured dejectedly as they walked away.

Suddenly a loud sound and a burst of smoke came from All Might’s direction and the four of them whipped their heads towards the source—Asui and Grape-Boy with amazement while Midoriya was showing concern over what happened.

“How did he make a suplex look like an explosion?!” the small boy exclaimed excitedly. “All Might’s on a whole other level!”

Asui agreed with him. “Even though he’s a rookie teacher who can’t teach without looking at his notes.”

They continued to chatter in excitement over the fight, completely convinced that nothing was going to take All Might down, but the expression on Midoriya’s face showed that he believed just the opposite.

Did he knew the truth behind “ _All Might_ ”? She thought, observing the boy’s face with a light curiosity.

“How’s your leg?” Ryouka asked as they climbed the stairs. Midoriya’s cheeks flushed a little as he glanced at his still limping leg, but it wasn’t bent anymore and Midoriya didn’t seem like he was in that much pain anymore.

“Better now. Thank you, Senpai,” he answered truthfully.

They’ve finally reached the top of the stairs, but Midoriya would sometimes worry his lip and glanced back every time some loud sounds were heard from the direction of the fight.

Ryouka knew exactly how he felt. She wanted to go back there too. Not having control over the situation made her feel anxious—especially when she remembered that All Might was already out of time.

“You seem worried,” Ryouka asked finally, trying to distract both him and herself.

“Well, I…” Midoriya glanced at her, hesitating a bit before he nodded. Before she could offer a piece of advice for him, however, she suddenly caught sight of Uraraka and the pink haired, pink skinned girl from before sitting beside the prone form of her homeroom teacher.

“Thirteen-sensei…!” Ryouka gasped seeing the teacher on the ground, the back of his costume absolutely wrecked.

“Senpai… Deku-kun…!” Uraraka exclaimed, a relieved smile blooming on her face when she saw them. Ryouka immediately gestured to Asui to help her lower Aizawa gently to the floor before she ran to examine Thirteen’s wounds.

“What happened?”

“Sensei was trying to hold back the mist guy, but he opened a warp gate behind Sensei and he ended up using his Quirk on himself…” the pink girl explained tearfully and Asui patted her head reassuringly.

Ryouka furrowed her brows as she examined him.

Thirteen didn’t have any physical wounds because his whole body was a black hole. Probably the reason why he couldn’t move was because he needed full concentration to control his Quirk so that the children wouldn’t accidentally get sucked inside him and turned to dust.

What a scary Quirk. Thirteen must have it rough.

Before she could do something to help him, however, Midoriya suddenly spoke again.

“As I thought, I’m going back.”

Ryouka whipped her head towards him in surprise, but before she could discourage him from going he was already running down the stairs again.

“Goddamnit, that kid—” she hissed in frustration.

Damn this wannabe Heroes and their hero-complexes.

Ryouka quickly spied the area around them and saw a piece of rubble big enough for her to use and summoned it to her with a silent summoning spell. It smacked her hand loudly, but she ignored the sting and the gasps of surprises from Uraraka and the pink girl and quickly transfigured the rubble into a thick sheet of material similar to the one of Thirteen’s astronaut suit.

She draped the sheet over the large hole on Thirteen’s suit and waved her hand to mend it. Once that was done, she quickly stood back up and turned towards the girls.

“Take care of him. I’ll go get Midoriya back.”

Without waiting for their response, Ryouka ran in the direction Midoriya just ran into.

 

 

 

When she reached the stairs, it was to see All Might, bleeding on his sides—his weak spot—with Tacky Costume, the loudmouth Katsuki, and that spiky readhead assisting him to escape the Noumu’s grasps while Midoriya stood amongst them looking relieved at their help.

Before Ryouka could get there, however, suddenly the Noumu had broken free and went for Katsuki because he was holding down Kurogiri.

Ryouka’s eyes widened in panic.

No matter how much she disliked Katsuki for being a bully, he was still a child. He didn’t deserve to die like that.

When the Noumu hit, however, Ryouka noticed that all of the kids was suddenly relocated to the sideline. She followed the trail of destruction the Noumu left behind and when the smoke had subsided, she saw All Might there, panting heavily with blood trailing down his chin from his mouth.

Ryouka couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but when she got close enough, All Might was telling them to leave him alone. They were probably intending to join the fight and assist All Might to increase the chance of winning.

“No!” All Might said firmly. “Please run away.”

Tacky Costume glanced at him with an even expression. “You would’ve been in trouble if I hadn’t done anything earlier, right?”

Oooh, he got you there, buddy.

“That was a different story, Young Todoroki. You have my thanks,” All Might told him gently, flashing them a grin before he turned his back on them. “But it’s alright! Just watch as a pro gives it everything he’s got.”

Midoriya stepped closer to him, looking worried.

“All Might, you’re bleeding… and besides, the time—” he caught himself before he spoke too much and shook his head at the tall man. Katsuki, the spiky redhead, and—Todoroki?—all nodded to show that they shared Midoriya’s opinion that he shouldn’t push himself when he was injured.

“Listen to your students, All Might. If you need help, then don’t shoulder everything by yourself.”

Ryouka said as she arrived beside the Pro Hero, nodding at Midoriya and the others.

“Ibuki-Senpai!” Midoriya gasped in surprise at her sudden appearance.

Ignoring him, Ryouka grabbed the front of All Might’s shirt and with surprising strength she pulled until the Hero’s face was directly in front of hers. The Hero looked startled at her appearance. She smiled at him slightly as she used her Quirk on him and patted his cheeks good-humoredly.

“Besides, I’m here too, you know.”

She might have no more stamina to run around and punch things to pulp, but she didn’t have to do that now there were All Might and the others here. She had something that could possibly end everything in one move now if there were others to distract the enemies.

“Listen well, Shigaraki! No matter if it’s once, twice, or even a hundred times you tried, All Might will never die!” Ryouka declared at the Villain who, finally, for the first time that day looked genuinely ticked at her presence.

“As long as I’m alive, I won’t let any of you to kill All Might!”

_It’s a promise,_ Ryouka vowed.

As she yelled those words, Shigaraki suddenly chuckled and All Might readied his stance again, standing in front of her protectively.

“Ibuki… Ryouka…” Shigaraki lowered his head, still chuckling. He raised his head again and smirked at her behind his mask. “We’ll see about that.”

Ryouka smiled sweetly back at him.

“Oh, you can _try_.”

“Noumu. Kurogiri. Get him,” Shigaraki ordered as he ran towards the kids. “I’ll deal with the children.”

Ryouka gestured to the children to come to her side as she grabbed hold of the Hero’s back.

“All Might! I'm going to do something, but I'll need your help to do it. It's a gamble, but I'm confident it will work,” she told at the tall man.

It was true. Ryouka didn’t know if it would work, but seeing that the Noumu wasn’t immune to her magic, it _should_ work. Maybe. Hopefully. They were screwed if it didn’t, since All Might was already out of time and she knew he was pushing himself to hold on even now.

The images of dead kids flashed behind her eyes and she shook her head. Yeah, no. She wouldn’t let any of these kids die before her. They had a long life ahead of them, she wouldn’t let anything took that away from them.

“What do you need me for?" All Might nodded, immediately agreeing with her without asking what she was planning. The show of trust he gave her touched her, but unfortunately this was no time for sentimentality so she just gestured towards the Noumu with her head.

“Distract that thing. Buy me some time,” she told him quickly before she turned towards the children. "Midoriya, Redhead, Loudmouth, and Tacky Costume, let All Might deal with the Noumu. You four keep an eye out for Shigaraki and Kurogiri.”

“Who the fuck do you mean Loudmouth?!” Katsuki yelled at her, full of rage as usual while Todoroki muttered under his breath as he looked at his costume with confusion.

“Tacky…”

Ryouka ignored them both and ripped her pendant off her neck. Holding it in her right hand, she took a deep breath and suddenly a circle of glyph appeared beneath her feet, lighting up with a magical glow. She hold the shining pendant above her head and turned to All Might and the others.

Looking directly into their eyes, she said, “Don't let anything touch me, you understand?”

They all nodded simultaneously, determined and fired up, confident that everything will be okay.

How could she disappoint them now?

She began to focus her everything into that tiny pendant as tiny particles of light gathered around it and All Might immediately took off as she did so. He laid a punch on the Noumu’s chest. And another, and another. Soon three becomes ten, and then twenty. He didn’t slow down at all, giving more than 100% of his power into all of his punches.

" _I stand in the place bathed in heavenly light_ ," Ryouka intoned clearly in concentration.

Shigaraki, sensing that she was about to do something, rushed at her, but Katsuki and the redhead appeared in his path, grinning like a pair of sharks about to bite their prey.

“Your opponents are us!” Redhead yelled at him as he punched the Villain’s face.

" _Thou art where the gate to the Underworld opens_ ,” Ryouka continued as Katsuki leapt over Shigaraki’s and tried to blow his head off. The blue-haired Villain evaded and jumped back to try and get some distance between them.

“Tch…!” Shigaraki clicked his tongue in irritation, turning to his companion. “Kurogiri!”

The black mist immediately tried to get her again, but now Midoriya was there for her. He sidestepped the Villain’s gates and punched the air, causing a big shockwave to blow his mist away and Todoroki encased the visible metal thing of his with his ice.

She watched as her pendant began to crack under the pressure of her power, but she kept pushing.

_It’s still not enough. Not yet._

In the middle of the plaza, All Might coughed up blood as he fought the Noumu, but he didn’t falter. Even when he got hit or pushed to the ground, even when everything around him was destroyed. All Might threw the Noumu to the ground and the Noumu rolled before it jumped high into the air.

“You know, a Hero… can always break out of a tough spot!” he yelled as he jumped after the Noumu.

Ryouka caught his eyes in the air, and the both of them nodded.

Grabbing the Noumu’s arm, All Might twisted in the air and threw the monster back onto the ground with a loud yell.

“Ibuki-kun! Your turn!” he shouted.

Ryouka closed her eyes before she opened them again, glaring at the Noumu as she brandished her cracking pendant at its direction. The Noumu screech as it tried to stand back up again, but it was too late for it to get away.

"This is the end, Shigaraki,” Ryouka said quietly.

Before the Villains could do anything about her warning, she threw her arms up to support the pendant and focused all of her magic into one impact point—the Noumu. The area around them darkened as three layers of magical rings materialized, lighting up above the Noumu like a guidepost for her spell.

Around them, the children shouted encouragement for her.

“Senpai, goooo!” Uraraka yelled from on top of the stairs, joined by the others. Together, they punched the air and shouted on the top of their lungs;

“Plus Ultraaaaa!!!”

Smiling, Ryouka shouted loudly and released _everything._

 “ _Come forth, Divine Lightning!_ _Indignation_!"

Her pendant crashed as a single, tremendous bolt of thunder struck down from the sky, piercing through the lightning rings and hit the Noumu, causing an explosion so big the tremor caused her to almost fall to her knees. All Might appeared beside her instantly, supporting her by the shoulder so she didn’t fall and nodded at her.

When the smoke subsided, they saw the Noumu amongst the rubbles, unmoving, showing no signs of life. It was fried with one of the strongest offensive spell she had, she’d be surprised if it didn’t die from that.

“She actually fucking did it…” Katsuki said in disbelieve.

Ryouka couldn’t take it anymore though—her vision blackened, the exhaustion had finally caught up to her. She would have had been on the ground by now if it wasn’t for All Might holding her up.

“Are you alright?” All Might asked her, but she couldn’t even answer him.

She faintly heard Shigaraki’s voice, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. She can hear All Might taunting the Villains to go attack him though.

What was he doing?

When her light-headedness lessened, she realized that All Might was carrying her in his trembling arms and Shigaraki was running straight at them, shouting about some revenge for the Noumu she just killed. Her eyes widened when she saw Midoriya launching himself at them.

“Get away from All Might and Ibuki-senpai!”

Ryouka saw Shigaraki’s hand going through the warp gate and appeared mere inches from Midoriya’s face, but before it could touch him, suddenly there were gunshots.

A bullet pierced Shigaraki’s hand and All Might turned around towards the entrance.

“Are they finally here?” he exclaimed in relieve.

“Class 1-A representative, Iida Tenya, have returned!” Someone yelled from the top of the stairs. Ryouka tried to focus her eyes and saw all the teachers standing behind the glasses guy from 1-A.

Look at that, the principal was even here. His fur looks amazing today, too.

All Might chuckled.

“It’s the keratin,” he said with amusement, looking down at her.

Ryouka blinked. “Did I say that out loud?”

“You did,” he said softly as he adjusted her position on his arms.

All around them, the sound of fighting picked up again. There were gunshots, the lashes of a whip, _Present Mic’s awful screeching noises_ that made her headache picked up again, also—oh my. Was she just that out of it or was Ectoplasm actually multiplying himself?

“You did a great job today, Ibuki-kun. Thank you… thank you for protecting everyone in my stead,” All Might suddenly said, his voice grateful and holding a tint of embarrassment. “Thank you for saving me, too.”

Ryouka looked up at his blue eyes and slowly brought her hand to his cheek and—

—pinched it.

“Ow!” All Might yelped, and her lips quirked upward in amusement.

“Wait for my punishment later,” she told him. “Don’t think you’re getting away from it.”

All Might’s eyes widened in panic.

“You’re still going to punish me?!”

With a small laugh, Ryouka closed her eyes again and fell into a deep sleep. Everyone was safe now. She can leave the rest to the actual Heroes of this world. Hopefully, when she woke up later, nothing like this will ever happen again.

She still didn’t want to be a Hero, after all.

**No. 8 A Promise — End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we finally got several appearances from Ryouka’s other previous lives! It’s not explicitly mentioned, but implied through her skill arsenal. The first one is [**Borg**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tHh-2aVeoI&t=95s), which is a shield in **Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic**. Being able to use the Borg is considered as a proof that you are a magician in that universe. She was **Scheherazade** if you’re wondering!
> 
> The second one is the [**Wildfire Stance**](https://youtu.be/Bq8-7R8pfMQ?t=75), which is one of **Eight** ’s fighting stances in **Final Fantasy Type-0**. His fighting style is hard to use, but it’s fun to play with when you master it! Magitek Armor is an enemy from the same game and it’s basically a really tough magical tank that could sometimes fly, depends on the model.
> 
> The third are **Light Shield** and **Wings of God** , which are spells of the holy element used by **Grisia Sun** , the 38th generation of Sun Knight, in **The Legend of Sun Knight**. I love Grisia to death, so if you see a lot of reference to the light novel series in this story, that’s probably why!
> 
> The fourth one is [**Warp**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUottnVFikI), which is a magic skill that could be used by those who have the blessing of the Crystal in **Final Fantasy XV**. Typically the one who could use this skill are the royals from the Lucis Caelum line and the Kingsglaive, if they were shared the power by the king.
> 
> Lastly we have [**Indignation**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVwS8cEENqo), which is my favourite spell in the entire Tales series. The one she used here is **Jade** ’s version of the spell, from **Tales of the Abyss**. Jade is my favourite character from the entire Tales series lol I love him so much he’s such a little shit.
> 
> Also, thank you all so much for the response last chapter, I really enjoyed reading your comments! By the way did you notice that Shigaraki actually started to say her name this chapter? It’s because he started to acknowledge her as a person instead of a tool for his objective!


	9. No. 9 The Lie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s so many of you shipping Ryouka and All Might it made me laugh lol. 
> 
> But anyway, writing action scenes somehow came easier for me than writing these “calm” chapters so it came out later than I expected. 
> 
> This one’s not even 3K words. Just a warning that I haven’t check it over for mistakes.

…

When Ryouka opened her eyes, she was in an unfamiliar room with a white ceiling.

She threw herself up in a panic as the events before she fell unconscious rushed into her mind and immediately regretted it as her head pounded harshly at the suddenness of her movement. Clutching her head and hissing in pain, she observed the room she was in.

It was a hospital room that was fairly high class with good facility.

She was… safe, then?

Small rays of sunlight came through the gaps between the curtains and the television was left on with low volume by whoever was taking care of her. She released her head when the pain lessened and saw a familiar bag on the sofa beside the refrigerator.

It was the travel bag her mother always use. Was she back from the honeymoon already?

Carefully this time, she lowered her feet to the ground and tried to walk. Feeling no more pounding headache, she approached the bag and opened it. Inside was her clothes, neatly folded and crammed in along with various toiletries, a small fluffy towel, and a hairdryer.

_Yup, definitely her mother_ , Ryouka thought as she took the entire bag to the bathroom, determined to take a very long and thorough bath. Who knows how long she had been in this hospital room already. She must have stunk.

She thoroughly scrubbed her skin and washed her really dirty hair inside. After that, she leisurely applied a generous amount of moisturizer on her face and wrapped her hair with the towel before she dried herself with another towel and get dressed.

Finally deeming herself decent, Ryouka finally came out of the bathroom.

“Oh!” A light female voice exclaimed. Ryouka glanced at the direction of the voice to see her mother beaming at her.

“I’m glad you’re awake, Ryouka-chan!” Her mother chirped happily as she wrapped her arms around her taller daughter. “We were just wondering where you went.”

“We?” Ryouka asked as she hugged her mother back.

She looked up and finally saw All Might, in his normal form smiling at her and her mother. In his arms was a big bouquet of white lilies.

“Yagi-san’s here to see how you’re faring. He even brings you your favourite flower, isn’t he sweet?” her mother gushed, beaming at the clearly embarrassed man.

“Yagi-san, huh…” Ryouka raised an eyebrow.

_Yagi-san_ coughed into his hand and stretched his arms towards her, offering her the bouquet. Ryouka felt her lips quirking up at his awkwardness and nodded her head demurely as she took the big bouquet from his hands.

“Thank you. They’re lovely,” she murmured.

“You’re welcome, uh…” _Yagi-san_ nodded, looking relieved that she liked it. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

“I was just exhausted. Overexertion does that to me sometimes,” Ryouka shrugged. “How many days were I out this time?”

“A little over two days,” the man answered, looking up and down her body to make sure she really was alright. He nodded when he didn’t find anything out of the ordinary and smiled at her reassuringly. “Don’t worry, you have been excused from schoolwork by the principal.”

“I see.”

Suddenly a loud tune rang throughout the room.

Ryouka eyed her mother who pulled her phone from her purse and rolled her eyes.

“Sorry to leave you so soon, Ryouka-chan. Your dad is lost _again._ Honestly, he has lived here for twenty years and he still haven’t learned a bit. I’ll go pick him up real quick and come back here, alright?” She smiled, wide and beautiful like she always was. “Yagi-san, you’re welcome to stay as long as you want okay? There’s tea in the thermos and some cake in the fridge if you want it!”

All Might coughed into his hands and nodded. There was a little patch of blood on his hand when he pulled it away from his mouth and Ryouka gestured him to come closer, but he shook his head.

“No, it’s fine. You’re still in recovery, it’s not good for you to use your Quirk now.” All Might paused. “Oh, right. We’re supposed to call a doctor when you wake up, so…”

Ryouka made a face at that.

“Ugh, don’t. I’m fine,” she grumbled as she went to the table beside the fridge to pour them some tea from the thermos.

All Might chuckled into his hand at her reaction. “We still have to though. To make sure you’re really alright.”

When Ryouka made a face at him again, he only smiled. Ryouka rolled her eyes and turned her back to him to take the cake from the fridge. All Might was strangely silent as she sliced the cake into serving portions.

After a strange silence, the man finally spoke again.

“Ibuki-kun, I… on the behalf of the entire U.A. faculty, we ask for your forgiveness.”

Ryouka glanced back at him with a raised eyebrow.

“For what?”

All Might bowed his head slightly, a grim look on his face. “Not only we failed to protect you, in the end you had to do our job for us because of our incompetence.”

With an audible sigh, Ryouka closed the fridge loudly and turned towards him. With a glass of steaming tea on one hand and a plate of cake on the other, she approached the gaunt-looking man and gave him the contents on her hands.

“Here. Tea and cake. Finish both of them,” Ryouka grouched as she sat on the bed with her own cup of tea in her hand. She looked at the startled man and shook her head. “Also, there’s no need to apologize. I chose to do what I did that day.”

All Might looked up, stunned. “But…”

Ryouka scowled and waved her fork at his face. “Do you think I would have left those children to die, All Might? And Aizawa too, when I have the power to stop it from happening?”

All Might shook his head. “No. You wouldn’t.”

“There you have it.” Ryouka nodded. “So no need to apologize. You and Aizawa did your best and it’s more than enough for me.”

“Alright,” All Might smiled finally. “Thank you, Ibuki-kun.”

Slurping her tea, she shrugged.

“Hm. Whatever.”

Having recovered his spirits, All Might began to regal her with the shenanigans of class 1-A during and after the incidents and honestly, Ryouka was amazed at their ability to recover from what should have been a traumatic event for them.

“I feel like you guys should teach them to defend themselves without using Quirks though,” Ryouka said in between his tales. “Quirks should be used as a tool—or something like a boon. They shouldn’t depend on it too much. They wouldn’t have so much trouble when they were separated if they weren’t so dependent on their Quirks.”

“We do teach the students hand-to-hand and survival tricks, but later in the curriculum…”

Ryouka scowled, shoving another mouthful of cake into her mouth. “Well, you should have made it your priority before anything else. These kids have lived with their Quirks all their lives, I’m pretty sure they’re already familiar with the use of their Quirks and whatnot. You should teach them what they don’t know instead. Also, battle tactics and strategy and how to utilize their surroundings to the fullest. It would be useful for them later.”

“True… I’ll talk about this later to the Principal then.”

Ryouka nodded. “Yeah. You do that.”

All Might suddenly perked up.

“Oh right. A friend of mine from the police force would like to ask you several questions about the attack, if you’re up for it? The others had given their statements already, but since you got to talk to that Villain the most he would like to ask you some questions too,” the gaunt man said.

Swallowing the cake in her mouth, she nodded at him. “Sure, you can send them here later.”

“Alright.” All Might nodded. “Also, Ibuki-kun… may I ask you a question?”

Seeing the hesitation in his blue eyes, Ryouka sighed. She had wondered when someone was going to ask her about this. Well, guess they weren’t going to spare her from this then.

“I don’t have multiple Quirks, if that’s what you’re wondering about,” Ryouka said as she sipped her tea to clear her throat from the cake she just ate.

All Might shot up in surprise and looked at her with bewilderment.

Ryouka rolled her eyes seeing the expression on his face. “No, I _can’t_ read your mind. You’re just easy to read. Everything you saw that day—even the Spring of Life you’re so familiar with—were all stemmed from my main power.”

That’s a lie, but they got no way to proof her wrong, so hey! It’s the truth for them now.

“Your ‘main’ power?” All Might asked.

Ryouka nodded. She had perfected this cover story since _way_ back so hopefully it will hold.

“Mm-hm. I call that power of mine ‘Magic’ for lack of a better term, and as you can imagine from the name itself, it’s versatile and does pretty magical things.”

To proof her point, she took her used fork and with a small poof, she transfigured it into a blue butterfly. The butterfly fluttered above All Might’s head and transformed back into a fork. Ryouka stifled a snort as she saw it dropped straight onto the blond’s head.

“Then… your strength and speed?” All Might asked, rubbing his head to alleviate the pain.

“Enchantments. Buffs, if you prefer to call it that. They make my body stronger, more durable, and faster than what I normally am, but it wore off pretty quickly too,” Ryouka shrugged. “Manipulating the elements, enhancing physical abilities. Transfiguring objects and summoning them from afar… anything you could imagine, I can probably do. The limit is just… my conscience, and also the vessel of this power—my body.”

Ryouka paused and glanced at the contemplative All Might.

“Am I in trouble for lying about my Quirk?” she asked finally, after a long silence stretched between them. All Might looked startled by her question but shook his head in answer.

“No, you’re not,” the man said. He looked hesitant, but finally he voiced the question that was brewing inside his mind. “But may I ask… why did you lie in the first place?”

Ryouka hummed as she stacked their dirty plates and cups neatly on the table.

“Well… you know the saying? With great power came great responsibility and all that?” She said with a shrug. “I don’t want to have responsibility, so I just pretend that I don’t have the power.”

Which wasn’t exactly a lie. She didn’t want to get involved in anything problematic, so she decided to hide her power so she could lead a normal life.

“Do you hate it then?” All Might asked again.

“My ‘Quirk’?” Ryouka asked to clarify.

When All Might nodded, she looked down to her lap and closed her eyes.

Memories of her past lives flashed inside her mind. The tears she cried, the blood she spilled, the people she lost… but there was also the happiness she shared amongst the friends she gained along the way. The warm memories full of light that kept her sane throughout her journeys.

She opened her eyes again and answered the man with a small smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Sometimes, I guess,” she answered. “But they’re a part of me. Without it, who knows if I can still call myself ‘me’?”

There was a short silence before the man spoke again.

“Then… you said you don’t want to be a Hero,” he paused. “Is it because you hate Heroes?”

Ryouka shook her head.

“Not really. I’m the type who don’t care what everyone else do for a living, but I know that being a Hero isn’t just about glory, fame, and money. You risk your lives every day to protect society.” She thought of her dead friends and the adventures they shared together and shrugged.

“I just don’t think I will be happy living that kind of life where I have to fight for my life constantly.”

All Might looked contemplative at her answer. "Then… if the incident the other day didn't happen, are you ever going to reveal your real Quirk?"

“No. I never planned on revealing it,” Ryouka told him honestly. “Even my parents still didn't know about it. I wasn't ready for that. I don't think I ever will. But there's nothing I can do about that now. I'm not going to let Aizawa die just because I want to keep my secret. I may not want to be a Hero, but I'd be a horrible person if I let that happen—especially after he got beaten half to death trying to save me.”

All Might gave him a small smile.

“Then you may rest assured, Ibuki-kun. Everyone present at the USJ who witnessed your ability have sworn to protect your secret.”

At this, Ryouka was genuinely surprised.

“They… did?”

“Yes,” All Might said before he got interrupted by a nasty round of cough.

“There’s a… villain that possessed multiple Quirks that he stole from others. Well… there was a suspicion from my colleagues that your unusual Quirk have a connection to his so we asked the students to not divulge anything pertaining to the incident to the media or fellow student. It’s a relief that you don’t have any connections to him though, I must say.”

Ryouka raised an eyebrow at that before she nodded for him to continue.

“Well, anyway. As of right now, only the principal, Recovery Girl, the students of 1-A, myself, and my close friend, an inspector from the police force, that know your secret and we will keep it a secret for you,” the man continued after he calmed down.

“We can't do anything about the Villains, but if they ever try to attack you again, then I will defeat them before they can land their hands on you.” All Might grinned at her as he transformed into his usual muscly-self. “I promise you that I will not fail for a second time.”

Ryouka looked stunned for a second before she finally relaxed and a smile—a real one—finally settled on her lips.

“I'll hold you to that then, Hero,” she said dryly at him and he flashed her another grin before he poofed back into his gaunt form.

“I will convince Recovery Girl to stop persuading you to be a Hero too. Your title as her apprentice will be useful for cover when you have to heal me, but you don’t have to do the other duties she set out for you if you don’t want to do them.”

“Nah, you don’t have to do that.” Ryouka laughed lightly behind her hand. She glanced at the blond and smiled at him. “I think… this is fine for now. This is fine.”

There was another silence between them, but this time, it wasn’t suffocating like before.

“All Might?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

All Might chuckled and nodded his head. “Rest well, Ibuki-kun. School haven’t been the same without you.”

“Okay.”

Hours later when All Might was gone, a frown settled between Ryouka’s brows. A villain that stole other’s Quirks, huh… dammit, her paranoia turned out to be true after all! She hope she would never meet him. That would just _suck_.

**No. 9 The Lie — End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to put in a NieR reference here with the lilies, but decided to scrap it out lol. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I’ll try to answer to your messages soon!


	10. No. 10  Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a job at a translation company recently! Thankfully I can work from home and communicate with them via email because I’ve been sick for 4 months now and it’s horrible. My immune system is non-existent, apparently.
> 
> Also alternate title for this chapter: Shigeka spewing so much made-up bullshit and cliché at her readers. Also to remind everyone, I still haven’t change my mind about the no romance thing. Enjoy!

**No. 10  Plans**

“…honestly I don’t understand how fickle these medias can be. Like, you know, one moment they were bashing U.A. for letting Villains attack their facility, but when they saw the public agreeing with me when I defended your teachers, they immediately backpedalled and showered them with praises!”

Ryouka snorted as her mother finished ranting. “Of course they did. They don’t want to look bad so they just went on with what’s okay with the public.”

Her mother pouted, plopping on the sofa. “But that just made them seem indecisive!”

“Most of them don’t actually care about integrity anymore as long as they make money,” Ryouka shrugged before she looked around their empty house. “Where’s dad anyway? I haven’t seen him yet.”

“I sent him on an errand,” her mother said, grinning widely. “You know that blueberry pie from that bakery you like?”

Ryouka shot her a dubious look. “You sent a directionally challenged person for an errand?” she paused before shrugging. “Eh, whatever. He’ll be fine. Tell him I want ten.”

Her mother giggled, covering her mouth with her hands. “Ryouka-chan! You’ll get fat!”

Ryouka smiled back at her. “It doesn’t matter if I do get fat, right?”

Her mother pouted and poked her sides. “Well no, we’ll still love you even if you’re grossly overweight, but then we have to buy an entirely new wardrobe for you!” Her mother stilled, and then she finally realized what she just said with wonders in her eyes.

“Wait no, please get fatter, Ryouka-chan! I love shopping with you!”

“ _No_.”

Her mother giggled again and beckoned her over. Ryouka snorted in amusement and sat beside her as they wait for the head of their little family to come back from his errand, which probably won’t happen soon without outside help. Honestly Ryouka have seen little kids on their first errand being more dependable than her dad.

Ryouka was discharged from the hospital soon after she woke up. The doctors had deemed her healthy but told her to rest plenty and to eat a balanced diet. Pretty basic advice that she already followed everyday anyway.

After All Might left, Recovery Girl called to apologize for not being able to visit her because she was busy with Aizawa’s recovery and other cases that needed her help, but told her that the hospital bill was already paid for by U.A. It was nice to know because even though her parents were quite rich, hospital bills could be somewhat heart-attack inducing sometimes.

Before she hang up though, Ryouka told her that there were several things that she wanted to discuss with her and the principal and since it concerned All Might, it might be best if he could be there too. Her master was curious, but acquiesced to her request.

Ryouka had been thinking about it ever since his talk with All Might. They knew of her magic already, so she could probably do something about his situation now without raising too much suspicions. If the man was healthy again, she didn’t have to heal him all the time too so that was good.

Ryouka took a small black remote from the desk and turned the television on before she noticed a movement from the corner of her eyes. It was her mother, fidgeting uncomfortably while giving her a hesitant glance every now and then.

Ryouka eyed her body language with suspicion.

“Do you have anything you wish to tell me, Mum?”

Her mother winced. “Oh…! How could you be so good at reading me?” she grumbled beneath her breath before she fiddled with her fingers nervously. “But well… there _is_ something that I want to tell you.”

Ryouka raised an eyebrow at that. “Well? Go for it then.”

“Um… er… that is…” her mother gulped and averted her eyes, trying to find another conversation topic to change to and Ryouka sighed silently. Seriously. She was almost 40—she shouldn’t act this childish, especially to her own _child_.

“Don’t stall, Mum. That’s unbecoming,” Ryouka rolled her eyes.

Her mother shot her a look. “How are you so composed all the time?”

“I’m not,” Ryouka groused. “Now stop stalling.”

“Oh, alright!” Her mum said before she looked down, obviously nervous. “So… I want to apologize.”

Ryouka raised an eyebrow. “For?”

“For everything!” Her mother burst out, her eyes tearing up as her emotions spiked. “It never dawned on me that being a Hero isn’t just about being famous and rich. I mean, even your grandpa never told me about the hardships of being one! He just sang praises and told me about how much he loved being a Hero.”

_Of course he didn’t tell you the dangers, he didn’t want his daughter to worry_ , Ryouka thought silently as her mother wiped her eyes before her tears could fall.

Her mother sniffed and hide her face with her hands. “I’m a terrible mother… I didn’t realize how dangerous it could be until I got the call from your principal, telling me that you’re unconscious in a hospital.”

Seeing how upset her mother was, Ryouka let out a small sigh and smiled wryly as she wrapped her arms around her mother.

“Don’t cry. There’s nothing to apologize, okay? You just gave me your permission to be Recovery Girl’s apprentice. You never forced me to do anything I don’t want to do,” Ryouka assured her mother and patted her back fondly. She suddenly remembered about the Villains she fought that day and winced.

“Rather, I think I should apologize to you,” she continued with a grimace.

Her mother wiped her eyes again as she pulled away and asked in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Well… that day, during the attack… I may or may not have got the interest of their leader.” Ryouka looked down, frowning as she remembered their exchange in the USJ. “He may target the two of you to get to me. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, Ryouka-chan…” Her mother murmured, touched by her concern over their wellbeing. “It’s alright! Mum and Dad is very wealthy, you know! We’ll figure something out. Do you think one bodyguard for each of us is enough?”

She beamed at her positively, and Ryouka felt her lips quirking up into a smile at that.

“If they can keep up with me in a fight, then it’s enough,” Ryouka told her, before adding, “Also I want you to carry one of those distress alarms. You have to alert me if anything happens.”

“Ryouka-chaaan…” Teary eyed and touched by her words, her mother’s lips quivered into a smile and suddenly Ryouka found herself being squeezed by the woman.

It was at that moment the door burst open and her dad appeared from the doorway, breathing hard as if he had been running. In his hands were the paper bags with the logo of Ryouka’s favourite patisserie. Her mouth watered in anticipation.

“Shouko-chan! Here’s the pie you requested!” Her dad announced cheerfully. “Sorry I’m late, I got lost and had to call for a taxi, haha…”

He trailed off as he adjusted his glasses with his hand. Noticing the position she and her mom was in, he gasped and rushed towards them. “What’s this, you’re having a bonding time and I’m not invited?”

Giggling at her husband’s mock-offended tone, her mother waved him over and opened her arms to welcome him. “Aw, come here honey! Of course you’re invited!”

Ryouka snorted loudly and pushed her off gently.

“Actually no. Both of you, please get off. I want to eat my blueberry pies now.”

 

 

 

 

The next day, the first thing she did when she arrived at school was making her way to the principal’s office where she found said principal, her master, and All Might waiting for her while having a tea party. She rolled her eyes at the ridiculous sight and quickly plopped down onto the sofa beside Recovery Girl.

“Good morning, Ryouka-chan. Would you like some tea?” the old lady asked pleasantly and Ryouka nodded.

“Good to see you’ve recovered, Ibuki-kun,” All Might greeted her as the principal went to get another tea cup for her.

“Thank you.” Ryouka returned with a small nod.

After her tea was served, the principal went back to his seat and smiled at her.

“Well, what do you wish to discuss with us today, Ibuki-kun?” he asked, and Ryouka said her thanks to him for the tea before she finally told them why she asked to meet them.

“Hmm… first of all, I need a laboratory of some sort and I need it airtight so that no poisonous fumes could get out,” Ryouka said. “I also need the tables in there have marble surface. It would be ideal for the lab to be built on separate building on its own, but if you can't do that it's okay, I'll make due,” she added.

“A lab?” All Might repeated with curiosity and Ryouka nodded at him.

“I also need a microscope and a storing cabinet too,” she said as she sipped at her tea. “Again, it will have to be completely airtight as I will be storing quite the miscellaneous items there that may or may not emit dangerous fumes.”

“Not that we couldn’t prepare that for you, but… what will you use the lab for, Ibuki-kun?” the principal asked her as he nibbled on a rice cracker.

Ryouka sipped her own tea calmly before she decided to answer him.

“I’m going to heal All Might,” she said, pausing a bit before adding afterwards, “Permanently.”

Everyone’s eyes widened at her words.

“What do you mean by permanently?” Nedzu-sensei asked him seriously.

“I mean what I said,” Ryouka said, shrugging nonchalantly. “I can heal All Might permanently.”

Seeing Chiyo-sensei and the principal exchanging glances and All Might looking at her in shock, Ryouka put down her tea and dabbed her lips with a tissue. It’s time to be serious right now, no time for tea party.

“I’m sure by now you’ve heard of my _real_ Quirk,” she prompted and they nodded at her.

“Not everything, but All Might here did told us about it yesterday,” the principal answered her. “Magic, is it?”

Ryouka nodded.

“Yes. I will get to that in a moment, but first…” her eyes glanced towards All Might before she continued. “As I understand it, the problem with All Might’s body is that his body is rejecting the transplants that was done to replace his damaged and missing organs and because of this complication, he couldn’t keep his food down and digest properly, which puts him in this state,” she gestured towards All Might’s skeleton-like body.

When they nodded, Ryouka continued.

“Because of his less than ideal body, he couldn’t use his Quirk optimally and limited his Hero-ing time to 3 hours a day too—”

“Actually,” All Might suddenly cut in. “I only have about an hour now.”

Ryouka’s eyes widened. “Only an hour?”

All Might nodded gravely. “The Villain attack the other day…”

Ryouka suddenly remembered All Might, his sides bleeding from being crushed and then having to push himself past his limits to buy her some time to cast her spell. Her eyes hardened for a second before she forced herself to put on her calm exterior back.

“I see. Then you’ll be glad to hear that I have a possible solution for this,” Ryouka began again. “As you may know, I can do a lot of things with it and one of them is Potions making.”

“I plan to brew a potion that could regrow missing body parts for All Might. This potion work by copying your gene and then replicating it into the body parts that it need to regrow. Since it’s using your own genetic material, the chance that his body will reject them is extremely low.”

She paused a bit to let them absorb the information before continuing.  “If I could successfully make it, hopefully you could regain your former strength again to wield your Quirk safely.”

“The only problem is gathering the ingredients and also the place to make it. Potions fume more often than not is poisonous to the human body. I’ll be able to manage somehow with my Quirk, but if a normal person breathe in those fumes, it’ll not be good for their health,” she finished her explanation.

“So that’s why you need an airtight laboratory.” The principal nodded at her. “That can be done.”

“Thank you,” Ryouka nodded at him. “While you’re at it, I also need you to build me a greenhouse to grow some of the ingredients. Oh, but please tell me where you're going to build it first since I need to do a ritual to bless the land where the greenhouse would be.”

Chiyo-sensei looked intrigued by this.

“A ritual?” she asked to confirm it.

Deciding that the atmosphere wasn’t quite so serious anymore, Ryouka nodded and snagged the rice cracker that was served on the table and began munching on it as she answered her.

“Yes. Magical plants grow on magical grounds, see, and do you see any magical grounds around here?” Ryouka shrugged. “Yeah, same. I don't see it because it doesn't exist. That's why I'm making my own.”

“Is there anything special that you need for the ritual?” Nedzu-sensei asked her, tilting his head a bit.

_Cute…_

“Not really. I just need to do it under the light of a full moon, which is in 4 days, so decide fast where you want it to be,” Ryouka told him, shushing the urge to pet the principal’s head down.

Nedzu-sensei nodded his acquiesce and went back to drinking his tea.

Ryouka was impressed that he didn’t even complain about her suddenly making demands at him and just went along with it without asking unnecessary questions. She hadn’t prepared an answer for if they were to ask him about where she got the knowledge for the potions she was making and she was crap about thinking up lies on the spot.

She snagged another cracker and gobbled it up before she remembered something crucial for her plan that she almost missed because she was distracted by the rice cracker.

“Oh, that’s right. I also need the cooperation from 2nd year heroics student, Sawa Rakan, and 1st year heroics student, Yaoyorozu Momo. Do you need to write a contract for them too or can I just ask them for what I need?” She asked the principal.

“That depends on what you need from them. If we can provide it to you without their help, we will.”

“Well, I need Rakan-kun's help with the ingredients that I need. Some of the plants didn't exist here but he can manipulate plants, so I need to show him how to make one,” Ryouka explained.

She sipped her tea first to clear her throat before she continued. “For Yaoyorozu-san, I need her to make me a crystal and a diamond cauldron, as well as several crystal vials to store the samples from each batch I made. You could provide this one without her help, but I imagine the cost will be very high.”

The principal looked thoughtful and frowned for a while before he nodded.

“I see. I will draw up the contracts to bind their secrecy for this project then, just to be safe,” he told her.

Ryouka nodded. “Okay. You take care of them then, Sensei. Let me know if everything's set up. I have to recheck the recipe so I don't make too many mistakes, but I will probably need a few tries before I succeed since I’m not the best potions maker out there.”

She then turned towards her master and All Might, who was watching her exchange with the principal silently since before.

“Chiyo-sensei, I also need All Might's complete medical records—well at least the ones after his injuries. I need to know what kind of procedures had been done to him and if it will affect the result of my experiment.”

“You will have them by tomorrow morning, Ryouka-chan,” Chiyo-sensei nodded, smiling at her.

Ryouka nodded at her coolly as she put her cup on the table and tidied up the mess she made. Seeing that she was just about done, the principal opened his tiny mouth again.

“Is that all the things you need for this project?” The principal asked.

“Yes, thank you. The last thing I need is several vials of All Might’s blood since I need to test the potions reaction to it first before I could let him drink them, but that can be done later,” she paused and glanced at All Might who looked like he was still processing all the information she dumped on them. Poor guy was probably overwhelmed.

“Are you alright, All Might?” she asked finally.

All Might jumped at her question and he shook his head quickly.

“W-what? No, sorry… I just…” he trailed off before he paused, biting his lips. “You can heal me?”

Ryouka’s eyes softened at the tone of his voice. He sounded so vulnerable. She remembered their first meeting and the words he told her back then; she imagined that he had completely given up hope of ever becoming healthy again.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” she told him, smiling slightly. “Well, hopefully, at least. I’m confident that I can do it though.”

All Might swallowed heavily before he rose from his seat and bowed his body at her formally.

“Thank you,” he said, and Ryouka waved it off with her hand. The man deserved at least this after all he had done.

Finally, Ryouka stood up and bowed her head at the principal.

“Well then, I will be going to class now. I believe I’m already late as it is. Thank you for being so cooperative with me, Sensei,” she said. “Please excuse me now.”

“Yes. I will inform you when everything is ready, Ibuku-kun,” the principal said cheerfully to which Ryouka just nodded her head in answer before she walked out the room.

 

 

 

 

“Ryouka-san!” Rakan exclaimed when he saw her coming to class that day.

“You’re alright now?” The boy asked her as he rushed to her side, his face contorting with concern. Ryouka nodded to reassure him as she put her bag on her table.

“Yeah,” she answered him.

When the frown on his face didn’t ease at her answer, her lips curled upwards slightly and she brought her hand to ruffle his hair fondly. The boy was such a worrywart.

“I’m alright, Rakan-kun. It was only a slight exhaustion,” she told him. “No need to look so worried, okay?”

“Well… we were worried when the news got out that the USJ was attacked by Villains. All the teachers suddenly ushered us back to our class and went there to provide back up, and then Chigusa told me that he saw you, covered in blood, being carried with a stretcher into an ambulance…” Rakan trailed off, biting his lower lip.

Senroh saw her?

“He saw me?” She echoed aloud. Rakan nodded.

“Yeah. Remember when I told you about our Quirks? His let him see everything around him up to 5 km radius,” he reminded Ryouka, who honestly had forgotten it because she was still overwhelmed by her new busy schedule at the time to remember something like that.

“I see,” was all she said at that. Rakan, the sweet boy that he was, didn’t seem to mind her short response.

“Actually we went to see you at the hospital after that, but you were still unconscious at the time…” he trailed off again, looking a bit guilty. Ryouka didn’t understand why since he didn’t do anything wrong.

“It’s fine. Thank you for coming to visit me,” Ryouka said, her eyes softening and a small smile tugged on her lips as she patted his head again to reassure him.

Rakan’s eyes widened a bit as he touched the spot where she just pat him. Ryouka left him there to get her books for the class out from her bag, but then she heard a small voice.

“Somehow I think you’ve gotten softer than before…”

Ryouka glanced at him with the corner of her eyes. “Is that so?”

“Mm! I like it!” Rakan beamed at her and she huffed softly at that even as the corner of her lips curled upwards.

“Cheeky brat.”

Rakan just laughed.

Moments later the door opens again and Narushige-san appeared with a stack of papers (probably for the next lesson) on his arms. He met Ryouka’s eyes and immediately approached her, his face a bit pale with worry.

“Ibuki, are you alright now?!”

Ryouka sighed wryly.

And so it started again.

While reassuring Rakan was easy, reassuring their resident mother hen was a nightmare. Narushige-san kept sending her worried looks throughout the day and only relented when Ryouka agreed to being examined by Senroh, who can use his Quirk as an X-ray vision too, apparently.

“She’s fine. I don’t see anything wrong with her,” Senroh said as they were about to eat their lunch.

It was the first time Ryouka went to eat together with them. Usually she had her healing duty, but Chiyo-sensei had said that she didn’t have to do it that day since she was still recovering and All Might hadn’t gotten himself injured anyway, so she went with Rakan when he headed to the cafeteria. Narushige-san fussed over her while Tohji and Rakan just send her an amused look.

“You missed quite a bit while you were at the hospital,” Tohji said after they settled.

“Oh?”

“Thirteen-sensei announced to us yesterday that the Sports Festival is still going to be held,” the eye-patch blond told her as he shoved a mouthful of _soba_ into his mouth.

“Even after a Villain attack they’re still going to hold it?” Ryouka raised her eyebrow sceptically. U.A. Sports Festival was open to public. Wasn’t that too reckless?

Rakan nodded at her.

“Yeah… he said something about it’s a way for U.A. to show the public that our crisis management system is strong or something like that. He said that the security would be heightened five times than last year’s sports festival but…” the boy paused, frowning in concern. “I don’t know… I’m kinda worried…”

Senroh was quick to put his arms around Rakan.

“Don’t worry, Rakan. I’ll protect you,” the black haired man assured him with his deep, smooth voice, making Narushige-san jump from his seat to pry them apart, grumbling under his breath for him to stop corrupting Rakan.

Ryouka rolled her eyes at the ridiculousness of it all. Sometimes she wondered what exactly their relationship was with each other.

After lunch, she leisurely made her way to Class 1-A for her Hero Lesson. As expected, many eyes followed her movements as she made her way beside Yaoyorozu, who smiled at her pleasantly as she welcomed her back.

Ryouka inwardly rolled her eyes. Their stare was so heavy she could practically hear them screaming the questions in their minds, she thought with a small sigh. Seriously, these kids and their curiosity. Still, they kept their promise to not say a word. Didn’t mean that their stare wasn’t making her uncomfortable.

Closing her eyes briefly in concentration, she tapped her finger on the table and casted a privacy spell to blanket over the entire room. When she was done, she opened her eyes and huffed at the pairs of curious eyes that stared back at her.

“Whatever is said in this room doesn’t leave this room, understand?”

Pinky was the first one to realize the meaning of her words and she jumped on the opportunity given to her and soon the others followed. Ryouka decided to be ‘truthful’ to the kids, answering their questions with the half-truths and lies she fed to All Might the other day.

“What was that the other day?”

“That lightning was so cool!!”

“How and where did you learn how to fight?!”

The questionings continued until Eraser Head came in, covered in bandages, telling them that their lesson for the day was going to be overseen by Present Mic, who will be teaching them basic hand-to-hand combat. Probably in preparation for the sports festival, or maybe they were taking her advice seriously.

She didn’t know if just two weeks will do any good on the kids, but okay. That was a start.

She wondered what the bandaged man was doing out of the hospital though. Even if she had healed the man before, it was only once and his injury was severe enough to require maybe all of her healing quota for a day. His bones were crushed and he was like mere centimetres away from death after all.

“You’re wobbling,” Ryouka commented, lagging behind with Aizawa as the kids cheerily ran towards the training ground’s changing room. Beneath that ridiculous bandage, she could see a faint movement as teacher’s eye twitched at her comment.

“And you’re slow,” the man grouched as he slumped forward, leaning on the wall so he didn’t fall. “Seriously, Ibuki. Run along with the others. You’re going to be late.”

Ryouka clicked her tongue.

Stubborn man.

Without warning, Ryouka pulled his bandage off his mouth and locked her lips with his. Before the man could swat her face away, she breathed out her Spring of Life into him. She immediately pulled away and smirked slightly at the bafflement on his face, ignoring the exhaustion that have begun to set in.

“That’s my thanks for trying to save me the other day,” Ryouka said, huffing at him. “You should really be more responsible and know your limit though, Sensei. You’re showing bad example to the kids, wobbling around in pain like that.”

“Have more care for your health and go to the infirmary to rest, but most importantly you should get rid of the bandage. You look ridiculous wrapped up like a mummy like that,” she said as she gave him a salute and ran off after the children, leaving the teacher alone in the corridor.

“Cheeky brat,” she heard the man grouched faintly from the background and she sniggered to herself, hearing a tint of fondness in his voice.

**No. 10 Plans — End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will cover maybe half of the sports festival. Maybe.
> 
> I really want to write a Harry Potter and Persona 3 crossover. I’ve been planning the entire plot of the story since 2012 but I never actually write it down because it makes me cry lol. I also really want to write a Final Fantasy XV fanfiction where Noct have a really supportive younger brother who would do literally anything to keep him safe. Aaaah so many ideas, so little time!
> 
> Also!! I started scanlating doujinshi last month lol. You can find it if you go to a certain site (I won’t say the name to discourage people not in the know from going down an inescapable hell).
> 
> I’ve only released two Mob Psycho 100 doujinshi so far, but I’m planning to release more, especially Final Fantasy XV doujinshi because there’re some stories that I like that haven’t been translated. I’ve gained so much respect for scanlation groups now though. Onomatopoeia and dirty talks are so hard to translate…
> 
> PS I CANNOT WAIT FOR KINGDOM HEARTS III AAAAA _AAAHHHHHHHHHH_


	11. No. 11 Brewing Trouble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OwO What’s this?! Another chapter within one week period after the last update?!
> 
> I’m on a roll lately. Behold the power of procrastination.
> 
> For the sake of this story, let’s pretend that making potions doesn’t have to use animal body parts and other miscellaneous items. Also, I decided to separate the festival into 3 days here. Opening day for 1st years, the 2nd day for 2nd years, and the closing day for 3rd years.
> 
> Also alternate title for this chapter: Probably not the sports festival you’re hoping for. It’s almost like a filler chapter tbh, but this might be one of my favourite chapter.

**No. 11 Brewing Trouble**

“Is this big enough, Ryouka-san?”

Ryouka glanced at the voice of her classmate. Surrounded by the newly grown plants and flowers from her original world, the sweet smile Rakan gave her was a soothing sight to her sleep-deprived soul.

The ritual took her six hours to prepare and perform two nights before so she was exhausted both mentally and physically, but right after she was finished incidents after incidents began to appear one after another in the area surrounding Hosu, causing her to get called in for emergency treatments so she didn’t get the chance to rest yet.

Still, it would be better for her to have the ingredients ready as soon as possible so that she could experiment on her recipe sooner, that was why she decided to mingle with plants instead of catching up on sleep at the moment. Thankfully it was Sunday, so after this was done she could go home and sleep all she want.

“Yeah, thank you, Rakan-kun,” she nodded at the boy, grimacing a bit. “Only one row left for the Mandrake, huh…”

She really wasn’t looking forward to this part. Mandrakes were usually a pain to deal with.

“Are you wearing the earmuffs I gave you?” Ryouka asked the boy and he nodded eagerly.

Rakan had been very enthusiastic for this project when Ryouka and the principal had approached him a few days ago, even though he wasn’t told exactly why they need him to grow all these plants.

The boy was as always, eager to help. He was so pure that sometimes Ryouka got the urge to kidnap him somewhere safe where no Villain could touch him, but then Senroh, Tohji, Narushige-san would hunt her down. Or maybe they would help her. She couldn’t tell anymore when it concerned the three of them and their attachment to Rakan.

Ryouka beckoned the boy closer to her and she pressed their foreheads together. She breathed out slowly, concentrating on the faint memories she had of the banshee-like plants from so long ago. Its shape, its colour, its voice, what it can do. She tried to recall as accurately as she could and transferred those memories into Rakan’s mind.

Rakan was silent as she did it, his eyebrows scrunched up in concentration as he tried to grasp the information she was giving to him. Finally, she stopped the transfer and pulled away from him.

“Did you get that?” She asked him and he nodded his head.

“I think I know how to make it now,” the boy said as he began to rummage his seed boxes to find the closest non-magical plant to a Mandrake that he had to use as the base before he used his Sanome Quirk to twist its genetic material into that of a Mandrake.

When she showed him her ‘true’ Quirk, Rakan was properly awed but also very accepting. He didn’t push her for information, taking only what she was willing to share with him while promising her that he wouldn’t divulge the information to anyone, not even to Senroh.

It was honestly very sweet. She was pretty sure that Senroh already knew anyway since he was probably observing Rakan at this very moment using his Quirk, but the sentiment was nice.

When the boy pulled a couple seed potatoes, Ryouka immediately casted a sound-cancelling spell on the entirety of the greenhouse so that no sound would leak past the glass of the greenhouse and adjusted her own earmuffs to make sure it was in place.

Encasing the seeds in his hands with a yellowish green glow, Rakan concentrated for a bit before he inserted the seeds several centimetres deep into the dirt and released his power to let the plants grow from seeds to a fully mature plant in less than a minute. Ryouka thought his Quirk was simply fascinating.

“There!” Rakan huffed proudly as he wiped his dirty hands on his apron.

Ryouka approached the plants and peered at it. The shape and the colour of the leaves were right, at the very least. Let’s check on the other properties then. With her gloved hands, she grabbed a Mandrake on the base of its leaves and pulled it out with one smooth move.

Piercing shriek filled the air and Ryouka immediately shoved the plant back into the earth to silence it.

Okay, it _was_ a Mandrake for sure.

She turned towards Rakan, who was looking very pale and clutching his head. Crap, did the earmuffs she gave him malfunctioned? Or was it because he was a muggle that the shriek affected him even through the protection? Well, whatever it was, he got hurt because of her.

She immediately went to his side to check on him.

“Rakan, how much does it hurt?” she asked him, gentle as she guide him to kneel so that he didn’t fall. The poor boy was so in pain he didn’t even heard her question as he clutched his head and whimpered pitifully.

“Sssh, I’ll heal you, okay. Ease up a little,” she whispered as she coaxed his mouth open. Ryouka didn’t really want to kiss him—the boy was too pure, she didn’t want to ruin what was probably his first kiss, but what can she do?

Oh right. Curaga.

Ryouka casted the spell upon him and—of course it didn’t work properly. It reduced some of his whimpers, but he was still in obvious pain. She sighed.

She had observed from the previous worlds that for some reason normal healing magic didn’t perform well with non-magical people, but she had hoped that because this world had Quirks it would count as magic, but apparently not.

Not having any other choice, she pressed their lips together and breathed out her Spring of Life into him. Within seconds, the boy pulled away, still reeling from the aftermath of his headache.

“Are you alright now?” Ryouka asked him and he nodded weakly.

“Yeah… I wasn’t expecting that,” Rakan said, smiling faintly, trying to make light of the situation, but Ryouka shook her head to rebut it.

“No, it was my fault. I didn’t know if normal people would reach this way, I apologize,” she told him.

Rakan stared at her for a moment before a wry smile graced his lips, knowing that he couldn’t win this argument against her. He accepted her apology with a nod of his head and she helped him back to his feet.

“Thank you for helping me today, Rakan-kun. I’m sorry too for getting you hurt,” Ryouka said as she spelled the boy’s clothes clean with a wave of her hand.

Rakan shook his head. “It’s fine! I’m having fun too!”

“Be as it may, you still helped me a lot. Expect Nedzu-sensei to call you in again for your payment, okay?” Ryouka patted his head with a small smile.

She had requested the principal to give both Rakan and Yaoyorozu payment for their help. It was a job after all, so it was only fair that they were paid—for their services and also for their privacy. Thankfully the mouse hybrid agreed easily.

Ryouka waved Rakan goodbye soon after that, but not before she extracted a promise from him to text her if there was any lingering side effects from the Mandrake’s shriek.

She sighed.

_Now_ , she could rest.

 

 

 

 

While the other students trained their body and ability during the two weeks that led to the U.A. Sports Festival, Ryouka sequestered herself inside her brand new lab and experimented on the potions whenever she could.

Recovery Girl had told her that she could choose to enter herself to the festival or not, but she choose not to.

The festival itself was not exactly mandatory, but U.A. Sports Festival was an important event for the students usually, since it was an opportunity for the students to show the skills they have to the Pro Heroes that came to watch as scouts. The purpose for this was so that they could be considered for an internship opportunity later by said Heroes.

Narushige-san also told her that the students from other departments were also enthusiastic about the sports festival because apparently if they claimed the top spot, they will earn the right to join the Class A Hero Course.

Ryouka was already interning as Recovery Girl’s apprentice and she was already in Class A though so the whole point of the festival was moot for her.

Recovery Girl _encouraged_ her to enter (for experience and because it would be fun, she said), but honestly it would be such a hassle, not to mention unfair to the other kids that wanted to make a name for themselves.

Not only that, she was just a _weak, helpless healer._ There were no way she could compete in such a brutal event, right? Right?

So with that excuse on her sleeves, she appealed to Thirteen and Recovery Girl to be excused from entering the festival. Both of them gave her a dubious look when she told them her excuse, but they agreed nonetheless.

Recovery Girl told her to help her with healing the participants though, which was _icky,_ but at least she would be able to sit back and relax while she wait for a reckless student to go get themselves injured.

But well, the point of all that was, while the others were busy with festival preparation, she wasn’t. Which was good, because she needed all the time she could have to reach her goal of healing All Might before the end of the year.

The potions took a week to make and the first batch she finished was, unsurprisingly, a complete failure. She suspected that messed up somewhere in the last three steps since the potions turned out a bright red instead of the lime green it was supposed to.

Keeping the sample on a crystal vial so she could compare results between batches later, she lazily stuck a sticker to mark the vial as batch no. 1 before she prepared the ingredients for the next batch.

Yaoyorozu was flustered and ecstatic when she asked for her help and gave her a lot of high quality materials for her to work with. Though the girl appeared mature (especially with those, um, _assets_ of hers), in the end she was just a kid after all—eager to be useful, to be needed by others.

Ryouka thought the girl must not have many friends growing up. What a shame since the girl had a very nice and amicable personality. She definitely need more confidence in herself though.

Ryouka was distracted from her work by a knock from the small glass panel on the door. When she turned around, she saw All Might peeking through, a wrapped box of bento in his hand. Ryouka rolled her eyes when she saw his pose. _What is he, a schoolgirl?_

Quickly checking on the state of her potions and after making sure it was stable, she decided to take a break for a while and stepped out of the laboratory.

“Came to give me your blood?” Ryouka teased, making the Hero flinch and step back warily.

“I… I thought you took all you need last week?” he said, sweating as he gulped, trying to mask his apprehension and failing miserably.

Ryouka couldn’t help it, she snorted.

Who knew the No. 1 Hero, the Unbeatable, the Symbol of Peace, was afraid of needles. The man literally got hurt every day, bleeding was the norm for him, but he was scared of being pricked by a small needle.

It was ridiculous.

“I’m kidding,” she told him, thoroughly amused by his reaction. “Unless you’re offering?”

The man immediately backed away.

Snorting, she took the boxed bento from his hand—it was prepared specially for her by Lunch Rush as part of her payment and smelled as delicious as always even through the box. Thanking All Might for delivering her meal, they walked towards the staff lounge to eat together with him and the other staffs.

Hound Dog growled his greeting when he saw her entering while Midnight winked at her. Cementoss smiled pleasantly in her direction and Present Mic shouted nonsensical English words at her. She waved at all of them before she picked a spot and opened the bento.

The delicious scents wafted into the air freely and she inhaled it with appreciation.

“How’s your preparation for tomorrow?” All Might asked as she began to eat. Chewing the food in her mouth, she shrugged at him.

“Nothing much. Chiyo-sensei have given me the staff ID card and she said the temporary infirmary have been set up with all the things I’ll need. I just need to show up tomorrow in my costume,” Ryouka said after swallowing. “Thankfully I don’t have to do that much. Chiyo-sensei will be away for the better part of the day to check on a recovering patient in the next town, but sometime after lunch she will be helping me with healing duty.”

She only have to heal those with serious injuries and those who have a match afterwards too, which was great. Those with light injuries and those who have no other matches for the rest of the day were to wait for Recovery Girl to come back and heal them after she treat them with normal medical supplies.

“I heard about that. There are many cases where Heroes ended up heavily injured or dead lately, it’s concerning,” All Might nodded, looking grave.

“Must have been someone with a grudge against Heroes,” Ryouka said, shrugging.

They finished eating quickly after that and since school was only half-day in preparation for the festival tomorrow, Ryouka decided to go home to rest so she could perform her best since it was bound to be nastily exhausting. Thank goodness the principal for dividing the first, second, and third year stages into three separate days so she wouldn’t have too many patients to heal each day.

 

 

 

 

Ryouka’s first impression of the notorious U.A. Sports Festival was that it was too grand for a mere school festival, there were too many people, and that it was loud as _fu_ —

She stumbled, bumping into another body. And then another. And then another.

She stopped walking, her shoulders shaking with suppressed annoyance as another body bumped her from behind. It was barely 9 o’clock in the morning and she was already so done with this whole thing, and it was going to continue on like this for the next 3 whole days. Fucking great.

Taking a deep breath to control her temper, she made her way slowly to the snack stalls and ordered anything and everything she could get her hands on. She had a long day ahead of her and need the proper amount of snacks to keep her sane.

There was a slight screech from the speakers before she heard Present Mic's voice opening the festival enthusiastically. He greeted the audience and introduced the classes that were competing for the day before the voice was replaced by Midnight’s as she called for the student representative to make the oath.

“ _I’m gonna take first place!_ ” rang throughout the stage area and Ryouka rolled her eyes at the declaration. _Very charming._

When Midnight started to explain the qualifiers, Ryouka urged the stall vendor to hurry up as she had to go back to the infirmary so she could be on standby in case something happened.

Back at her infirmary, she set her purchases on the table and relaxed back onto her chair, preparing herself to watch the festival and judge the kids from afar as she snacked on the various foods she bought.

When the race started and the kids trampled over each other to be the first, she slapped her face onto the palm of her hands and groaned loudly. They were really determined to give her something to do today, weren’t they?

She had to say that the students from 1-A really stand out from the rest though. Especially Tacky. Todoroki was it? Very flashy. The Loudmouth wasn’t half bad either.

She leaned closer to the TV monitor when she saw a glimpse of green hair at the corner of the screen. It was Midoriya, struggling to keep up with the others as he carried a metal plate on his back. Ryouka tilted her head, wondering why the boy was carrying something like that around when it only served to slow him down.

Everything was explained when he suddenly shot to the finish line by triggering the explosion from the land mines and using the plate to propel himself forwards though. Very reckless, but it _did_ get him into first place. If he got injured from his recklessness she would smack his head with a chair before she would heal him though.

Ryouka cleaned her table from her snacks when someone knocked on the door and she mentally sighed, resigning herself for the onslaught of patients for her to treat.

Amongst the 220 first year students, only 160 of them decided to compete in the festival and only 42 of them could earn the right to advance to the next round. Thankfully amongst the 42 students that advanced only Aoyama from 1-A needed her treatment because of the setback from his own Quirk while the rest were only a little bruised.

The ones that didn’t make it, though…

Ryouka sighed audibly as she finished wrapping the badly sprained ankle of a student. The boy had tripped during the very beginning of the 1st stage and tried to run until the goal with his sprained ankle and you know what? There was Plus Ultra, there was not knowing one’s limit. _This_ was definitely not the former.

She bid her 38th patient goodbye after scolding him and welcomed her 39th one with a resigned sigh.

Thankfully of all her patients that day, only one needed her to heal him with her Quirk because of his broken leg while the others were only simple flesh wounds that she could treat normally.

She glanced at the clock, seeing that it was only a little after 11, and glanced at the monitor where the cavalry battle was in full swing and fought the urge to massage her temples seeing how brutal these kids were to each other. Explosions and fire, electrocution, creating really sharp ice spikes everywhere… it would be a miracle if they didn’t severely injure each other at the end of the stage.

She looked up from the monitor when she heard a knock from the door again. When the door opened though, it was Rakan and his entourage that greeted her, not another patient.

“Rakan-kun, everyone. What are you doing here?” Ryouka asked them, not expecting them.

Narushige-san smiled at her, looking a bit sheepish.

“Sorry to bother you when you’re working, Ibuki, but Rakan and Tohji thought you would be bored being here by yourself so…” the long-haired man trailed off.

“Well, you’re not wrong. Come on in if you want,” Ryouka told them, gesturing them towards the spare seats that were meant for her patients. She rummaged the cabinet beside her desk and found what she was looking for—teacups.

She set the cups on the table and poured all of them some tea from her thermos and offered them the dorayaki she bought earlier. Narushige-san’s Quirk, the rainbow-coloured snake that he named ‘Kou’ immediately launched himself at the snack with heart in his eyes.

“Delicious! Narushige, it’s delicious!” Kou said, beaming at Narushige as he gobbled the cake up.

Ryouka smiled seeing his enthusiasm.

Kou was Narushige-san’s Quirk. He was a really talkative and curious snake that could turn into a sword and apparently could cut anything that Narushige-san wants. She was told that when Narushige-san was born Kou was born alongside him, coiling around his tiny body protectively.

“I have more if you want it,” Ryouka told the snake who immediately showered her with a flurry of ‘thanks’ and ‘Ryou-chan’s the best’. Narushige-san shot her an apologetic look for how his Quirk was behaving, but Ryouka didn’t mind it. She found the snake really cute.

Once everyone was settled in, they watched the cavalry battle together through the screen. The boys all gave small commentaries, commending the first years for their creativity and sharing with her their own experiences during the festival last year.

Apparently the four of them had advanced to the third round, but Rakan was defeated by a boy from class B because he was a pacifist at heart and hesitated when he was fighting him. Senroh, who was his opponent in the next round, obliterated the boy mercilessly, of course. In the end the festival was won by Narushige-san though.

“Why are you in the Hero course though?” Ryouka asked Rakan, who flushed slightly in embarrassment.

“Well…” he paused, glancing at Senroh. “I was going to go to Support, see. I thought my Quirk would be useful to create some useful plants and fruits for the Heroes to bring into a fight, but when Chigusa found out that I wasn’t going to the Hero course, he said he wanted to change to Support too.”

Rakan huffed. “Obviously I couldn’t let that happen. His talents belongs with the Hero course and he _wants_ to be in the Hero course to begin with so I decided to go with him. I figured I could still make stuff even if I’m not in Support anyway.”

Huh.

Ryouka nodded to acknowledge his explanation before glancing back towards the screen, where she saw Midoriya’s group and Tacky’s group were engaged in an intense showdown. She glanced back towards the four of them and her mind wandered.

Visions of her old friends began to overlap with the shape of the boys in front of her and she closed her eyes, trying to dispel the imagery. Being with them, talking to them, listening to their soft laughter and seeing their easy camaraderie with each other, couldn’t help but reminded her of the past long gone.

She shook her head slightly.

No. She had to remember her promise.

She mustn’t let herself be chained to the past.

“Ryouka-san?” A soft voice called out to her. “Are you alright?”

Ryouka opened her eyes again to see Rakan looking at her with concern. She smiled slightly and shook her head to reassure him that she was fine.

“It’s nothing… I just realized that you and Rakan looked a bit similar,” Ryouka said, blurting the first thing that came to her mind and the five of them glanced at each other. Probably not buying her words but were unsure if they should push or not.

In the end, they decided to play along with her.

“Oh… we never did tell you, didn’t we?” Rakan said with a small smile. “Actually Narushige-san is my cousin.”

Narushige-san nodded. “Shigeka-sama—I mean, my mother, is Rakan-kun's mother's cousin.”*

“Really now?” Ryouka mused, peering at their faces closely. “Well, both of you gave off a really soothing presence, I suppose. Not to mention your beautiful faces. Must be shared in your family, huh?”

Her words caused both of their cheeks to flush bright red.

“Ryouka-san!” Rakan pouted when he saw the amusement in her expression.

“What? I'm telling the truth,” Ryouka smiled, closing her eyes, pretending that she didn’t know why they reacted that way. Senroh nodded at the boy, looking completely serious as he agreed with her words.

“It's true, Rakan. I think you're beau—”

Before he could finish his word Tohji immediately clamped a hand over his mouth and smiled menacingly at the black-haired man.

“Okay, you can stop there, Senroh,” the blond said, while Kou immediately beamed at her.

“Right? Right?! My Narushige is the most beautiful person, right?!” The snake babbled happily and Narushige-san shushed him, blushing brightly in embarrassment.

Rakan smiled, sighing exasperatedly as everyone chattered between themselves. He decided to leave them be and he turned towards Ryouka again.

“Chigusa's related to me too. My dad is his dad’s younger brother, but he married into my mom's family so our surname is different,” Rakan continued to explain. “We were raised together by my grandpa though as his mom and dad died a long time ago. He became attached to me soon after he moved in with us.”

Huh… so _that_ was their relationship. She honestly thought that Senroh was madly in love with Rakan with how he acted around the boy.

She obsered how the black-haired man was looking at Rakan and winced.

Yeah, maybe her theory wasn’t so far from the truth after all, she thought as she sipped her tea again.

“Do any of you have siblings?” Ryouka asked, trying to change the topic to something more family friendly. At the mention of siblings, Rakan’s face brightened and he went to rattle about

“Yep! I have a twin brother, Rasetsu.* Most people called him Prince because his personality though,” Rakan said, chuckling a little. “Narushige-san have a younger sister, Sae. She's in middle school right now and is aiming for U.A.’s Management course next year. Tohji have an older brother, Kazuhi, who owns a hero agency next town. We’re all going to be interned there this year too. Chigusa's the only one who is an only child here.”

Oh, now _this_ was interesting.

“You have a twin?” Ryouka asked, curious. One Rakan was soothing enough, but two? “I kind of want to see you two together now…”

Kou shook his head at her sagely. “Prince's the complete opposite of Rakan though, I wouldn’t recommend meeting him.”

Ryouka raised an eyebrow. “Opposite?”

Tohji shuddered and wrapped his arms around himself.

“He's a little devil,” he whispered lowly, earning himself a smack to the back of his head by Narushige-san, who huffed at his words.

“Don't listen to him,” the long-haired boy said, scowling at the blond. “Rasetsu-kun just love to play pranks on unsuspecting people and Tohji often got the brunt of it when we were younger.”

Sounds like a fun person, Ryouka thought before echoing it aloud.

“He is! And his Quirk is amazing too! His is a mutation between my family's traditional Quirk, Sanome, and Chigusa's family traditional Quirk, Ayame,” Rakan gushed in excitement. “It's amazing. He can see far away and manipulate things like Chigusa _and_ absorb energy from living beings too.”

“Absorb energy from living beings?” Ryouka echoed, raising an eyebrow.

“Yep! Unlike my Quirk that gives energy to plants so they may grow, Setsu can take the energy from them,” the Sanome user explained. “It's not limited to only plants though, that's why he isn't at school with us. He didn't want to accident ate up someone.”

Rakan looked a little sad at that.

“That, and because the Prince loves to laze around at home,” Kou quipped to lighten the mood. It worked and Rakan immediately pouted at the snake.

“He is not! He works with the police for reconnaissance work too sometimes!” The boy said, defending his brother’s name.

“Yeah. _Sometimes_.”

The five of them bickered again and Ryouka smiled slightly at the sight. It was endearing. She was glad she decided to befriend them.

Suddenly there were cheering from the speaker and they all looked at the TV to see that the four teams that will advance to the next stage have been decided. She heard Present Mic announcing the teams’ name. Team Todoroki in 1st place, Team Bakugou in 2nd place, Team Shinsou in 3rd place, and in last place was Team Midoriya.

Ryouka peered closely at the monitor. It looked like no one had been seriously injured. Midnight would notice her too if someone needed her treatments, so she could probably leave to buy food after this since there was a one-hour lunch break for the competitors.

When she said she was going to grab some food, Rakan, Tohji, Kou and Narushige-san, and Chigusa all bid her goodbye because they were going to go meet their other friends after this too and Ryouka left after seeing them off.

She went out to the area outside the stage where they were selling the food. Being the clever girl that she was, she had ordered her meal and paid for it in advance in the morning so she could just grab it without having to stand in the lunch rush line this time.

Taking her large box of takoyaki, she went to find a secluded place to eat her meal in and found an empty corridor. Perfect. There was no people, and there were breeze and shade for her to enjoy her meal in.

She glanced at the really, really short skirt of her Hero costume and frowned. If she sat down on the floor with the damned outfit she would flash her underwear to everyone that happened to stumble there, so she casted a disillusionment charm on herself.

Just as she was about to eat though, two figures approached the hallway she was in and stopped right beside her spot. They were… Tacky and Midoriya?

“So… what do you want to talk about? The cafeteria will be really crowded if we don't hurry…” Midoriya trailed off, sounding unsure, before suddenly he perked up and sniffed the air around him.

“Wait, did you smell fish?” the green haired boy asked incredulously as he looked around.

“Fish?” Tacky echoed as he glanced around too.

_That must be the katsuobushi in her takoyaki_ , Ryouka thought with a small wince. _Don't mind me, don't notice me. I'm just a wall decoration,_ Ryouka chanted in her mind, shoving a ball of the takoyaki into her mouth as he watched Midoriya fidget uncomfortably under Tacky's severe glare.

Okay, maybe she was just being hard-headed now. She knew the boy’s name was Todoroki, but Tacky’s shorter, okay? Though… maybe she should call him Emo after this, with how much he was glaring at Midoriya.

“I was overwhelmed… so much that I broke my pledge,” the two-tone haired boy began after they failed to find the source of the smell.

Ryouka observed them as she shoved another ball into her mouth. It seemed like she was getting the front seat view of the beginning of some teenage drama. Should she leave? She was still eating though…

Well, whatever. It wasn’t her fault that they picked her eating spot to discuss their problem.

“Iida, Kaminari, Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami, and Uraraka... none of them felt it. At that last instant, I was the only one who felt that pressure. Only me, who had experienced All Might's full power up close,” he continued as he raised his left arm towards his face and Ryouka rolled her eyes at his dramatics.

_But… All Might again, huh_ , she mused silently. _First Asui, and now Todoroki. Was her suspicion really true…?_

Midoriya gulped nervously. “What… does that mean?”

“I felt something similar coming from you,” the other boy said, his eyes piercing into Midoriya. Ryouka leaned forward, anticipating his next words.

“Midoriya… are you All Might's illegitimate child or something?” Todoroki asked him bluntly. At his question, Midoriya froze and Ryouka almost choked on her meal. She immediately swallowed to avoid actually choking on it and suppressed a cough.

_Illegitimate child?_ Ryouka stared at Todoroki in disbelieve. What an… _active_ … imagination.

“Well? Are you?” the boy pressed, demanding answer.

Midoriya stuttered, looking very flustered as he answered.

“Th-that's not it! I mean, even if I was, I would say I wasn't so I don't think you'd believe me, but that's not how it is…” he trailed off, sounding unsure. “In the first place, let me as you something… why do you think that about me…?”

She was curious too. Aside from their Quirks, they looked nothing alike. Well, Midoriya could have been taking after his mother, but…

Ryouka tried to imagine All Might siring a child with a woman and snorted lightly, not being able to picture it at all. The man was way too easy to fluster and awkward even only with an innocent kiss—doing something _more_ than that? _Outrageous_!

“Since you said, ‘that's not how it is,’ that means there's a connection between you two that you can't talk about, right?” Todoroki answered the green haired boy as she was busy imagining All Might with a wife and kid. “Endeavor's my old man. I'm sure you know that he's been stuck as the number two hero since forever. If you have a connection to the number one hero, then I… have even more reason to beat you.”

_What’s that got to do with Midoriya though?_ Ryouka thought as she chewed on another ball and suppressed a moan of appreciation at the taste. She must simply buy another one before the third stage begin. That vendor’s takoyaki was probably the best she had ever eaten.

“My old man has a strong desire to rise in the world,” Todoroki continued. “As a hero, he won a name for himself with crushing force. Because of that, the living legend, All Might, is a great eyesore to him. Since he couldn't surpass All Might, he moved onto his next plan.”

Midoriya gulped. “What are you talking about, Todoroki-kun…? What are you trying to tell me?”

“You've heard of Quirk marriages, right?” Todoroki asked him in return.

“That thing that became a problem for the second and third generation after superpowers appeared—choosing a spouse based only on strengthening your own Quirk and passing it onto your children, forcing people into marriage. The old-fashioned way of thinking brought about by a lack of ethics,” the boy explained to the stunned Midoriya.

Ryouka frowned at his words and put down her meal as a sour feeling settled in her chest, already predicting where he was going to bring this conversation to, but… Endeavor wasn’t the friendliest human being, but he was still a Hero. Would he really do something like that?

She glanced at Todoroki’s grave expression and wondered if she should leave discreetly. It was certainly too late after what she heard. She thought she was going to witness some juicy rivalry drama so she didn’t go earlier, but she felt bad to eavesdrop on something this heavy of a topic.

Before she could act though, the boy continued.

“He is a man with both accomplishments and money. He won over my mother's relatives and got a hold of my mother's Quirk. He is trying to fulfil his own desire by raising me to be a hero to surpass All Might. It's so aggravating… I won't become the tool of a scum like that,” he said, gritting his teeth in suppressed rage.

“In my memories, my mother is always crying,” Todoroki continued coldly as he took his hand to cover his left eye. “‘ _Your left side is unsightly_ ,’ my mother said as she poured boiling water on me.”

Midoriya looked more horrified by each word he said, but he couldn’t do anything but stand there and listen as his classmate dumped his thoughts onto him.

“Basically, I picked a fight with you to show him what I can do without using my shitty old man's Quirk…” Todoroki told him, before a fire entered his eyes and he glared at Midoriya again. “No… I'll reject him completely by winning first place without using it.”

He uttered the vow with conviction before he lifted his back from the wall and started to walk away.

“I don't care if you can't tell me how you're connected to All Might. No matter what you are to All Might, I will rise above you with just my right side,” Todoroki muttered. “Sorry for wasting your time.”

Ryouka watched as Midoriya gritting his teeth in frustration and sighed. Well _anyone_ would react that way after being told something like that so she didn’t blame him. Before long though, Midoriya suddenly chased after Todoroki’s retreating back and called out to him loudly.

“I…!” Midoriya yelled at the other boy, catching his attention again.

“I have always been supported by others. That was the case earlier, too. I am here because of the people who have supported me,” Midoriya began softly, looking at his clenched hand. “Saving people with a fearless smile, the greatest hero—All Might… I want to be like him. In order to do that, I have to be strong enough to become number one.”

He raised his head and stared back into Todoroki’s eyes with determination in his eyes.

“My motivation might seem trivial compared to yours, but I can't lose, either. I have to live up to the hopes of those who supported me,” Midoriya declared confidently. “The declaration of war you gave earlier—I'll return that. I will win against you.”

They stared into each other’s eyes and acknowledged each other’s vows.

When they finally left, Ryouka dispelled her disillusionment charm and heaved a long sigh as she put her face onto the palm of her hands for the second time that day.

That… that was so heavy that it made her delicious food taste bad.

When she agreed to be All Might’s healer, she _didn’t_ sign up to witness this kind of teenage angst and family drama okay. Why did they have to pick her eating spot for that kind of serious talk anyway? Ryouka grumbled inwardly as she shoved the last of her meal into her mouth.

But still… Endeavor, huh?

Ryouka narrowed her eyes darkly as she burned the empty takoyaki container.

_…What a shitty human being._

**No. 11 Brewing Trouble—End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *No I’m not giving myself honorific lol. If I remember correctly Narushige actually called her mother Shigeka-sama in canon because she’s the head of the family and he’s like a stranger to her. His family consists of all female and because he’s the only male he was viewed as an ill-omen. It’s sad :( 
> 
> Also Prince canonly doesn’t have a name. I choose the name Rasetsu (羅節) for him because of its connection to Rakan’s name (羅貫). If you're curious what these four beautiful people look like, [click here](https://file-image.mpcdn.net/9209/518143/3.jpg)!
> 
> I think the rest of the festival will be concluded next chapter, but don’t expect it anytime soon. I will be pretty busy after this probably.


	12. No. 12 Ibuki Ryouka’s Consultation Corner

Ryouka stumbled upon All Might during her walk back to the infirmary after lunch. Even with his usual comic-book grin, she could tell that the man look disheartened as he stared at the stairs in front of him. She frowned seeing his expression and decided to approach him.

“What are you doing?” She asked, making him jump.

“Ibuki-kun, you startled me,” the man stuttered as he hunched his form, looking quite a bit like a deer in headlight. Ryouka’s lips couldn’t help but curled up at the sight and the man quickly straighten his back when he realized that she was laughing at him.

“Want to have tea? There’s still some time before the third round begins right?” All Might asked as they walked together to the infirmary.

“Sure,” Ryouka nodded easily. “I have something I want to talk about with you anyway.”

They walked together, chatting lightly as they headed to her infirmary. When they arrived, Ryouka locked the door after making sure no one was around and nodded at All Might who poofed back into his real form.

Just as he was about to make them some tea though Ryouka suddenly noticed something different about him.

“Wait—All Might, come here for a second,” she called out to the man who curiously went to her side. She reached up and grabbed his face with her hands, humming as she turned it side to side, ignoring the man’s bewilderment. Satisfied, she pulled his sleeve and guide him to the scales on the corner of the room.

“Stand there,” Ryouka commanded him and observed intently when All Might stepped on the metal plate. The numbers shot to 102 kg and Ryouka smiled in satisfaction at the result.

“As I thought… you’ve gain almost 5 kg since the last time we measured it. Your cheeks aren’t so hollow anymore too, did you notice that?” she said as she beckoned the Hero down again so she could observe his face before she took his arms and felt it with her hands. Yup, it wasn’t so bony anymore.

“What…” All Might breathed in disbelieve as he rushed to the mirror cabinet where she kept the medical supplies. “It’s true…”

“If you keep this up, you’ll reach your ideal weight soon,” Ryouka told him, hitting his chest with her knuckles lightly. “Work hard, okay?”

All Might answered her with a bright grin and a thumbs up. She smiled at his enthusiasm and went to a cabinet to boil some water and prepare their cups. When everything was ready and they were seated, All Might decided to begin their conversation as they waited for their tea to cool down a little.

“So… what is it you want to talk about?” All Might asked her and Ryouka’s head snapped up.

Right. She almost forgot about it. She eyed the Hero up and down with narrowed eyes, trying to see if there were any similarities between him and Midoriya. Seeing the man squirming uncomfortably under her piercing gaze, she sighed and decided to just ask him outright.

“Is Midoriya Izuku your son?” she asked him just as the man was taking a sip from his tea. Predictably, he choked and sputtered, looking at her with disbelieve in his eyes.

“I-I’m sorry, what?” All Might asked weakly, tea dripping down his chin and staining the front of his too big shirt. Ryouka dutifully handed him a handkerchief she conjured from thin air to wipe the mess as she repeated her question.

“Midoriya Izuku. Is he your son?” she asked again and the man gaped at her before he immediately stand up, babbling denials at her.

All Might shook his head frantically, cold sweat dripping from his forehead. “N-no! Young Midoriya is a fine young man, but I’m not his father!”

Seeing him spluttering trying to find an excuse, at first she thought that he was trying to hide the truth from her, but somehow she could feel that he was telling the truth.

“You’re not?” she frowned. _So it wasn’t like that after all…_ “That’s somehow a bit disappointing.”

Using the handkerchief she gave him, he dabbed the sweat on his forehead and sighed in relieve as she accepted his words as the truth. He eyed her warily and inched away from her as he took the cup to his lips again.

“May I ask what is it with the sudden question…?” he asked her nervously and Ryouka huffed as she drank her own tea.

“Well… earlier, I kind of accidentally overheard Todoroki and Midoriya’s conversation and it got me thinking,” she told him. “Did he ever tell you that I was his upperclassman in middle school?”

The Hero shook his head. “No…”

“Well, now you know,” Ryouka shrugged as she observed the TV screen. “Midoriya was quite well known you know. He was the only Quirkless person in our school, so I’ve heard of him long before I actually met him.”

“I met him again in this school—where he suddenly gained a Quirk. A really powerful Quirk… too powerful, in fact, for his own body. A Quirk that is really similar—no, _identical_ to yours. The boy just told us that his Quirk just manifested really late, but you can’t deny that everything looks suspicious.”

“My initial thought is that somehow you passed down your power to him, but then I overheard Todoroki confronting Midoriya of his suspicion that he’s your son,” Ryouka told him as she took another sip. “Initially I thought, wow, how _ridiculous_ that idea is, but the more I think about it the more plausible it seems since Quirk is generally passed down from parents to child.”

She set down her cup and looked up, noticing that the man across of her had gone rigid and sweating a lot, looking weirdly anxious in his seat.

“Oh my, are you alright there All Might? You’re a bit pale,” she commented lightly. All Might look a bit faint as he nervously tried to avoid her gaze.

“I’m… just fine, thank you.”

Ryouka eyed him in suspicion and he fidgeted anxiously under her gaze. He immediately averted his eyes, looking anywhere but at her. Cold sweat poured from his head and Ryouka decided she couldn’t handle the silence anymore and sighed, making him jump.

“Let me guess…” Ryouka began slowly, “…I’m right aren’t I?”

The awkward and painful silence that followed her statement basically confirmed her words and she rolled her eyes upwards, muttering curses under her breath. Looking at the nervous Hero, she snorted and took her cup to her lips again.

“…Please don’t spread it around?” All Might hesitantly asked her.

“Do you think I’m an idiot, All Might? Do you really think I would spread that kind of information around?” Ryouka rolled her eyes again and snapped at him, a bit offended at his request.

The Hero winced at her harsh tone. “I… I apologize… I know you are not that kind of person.”

Seeing the remorse in his face, Ryouka sighed.

“It’s fine if you understand,” she told him, accepting his apology even though she was still a bit miffed at him. “You _suck_ at lying, by the way.”

Her eyes flitted to the TV screen that was broadcasting the recreational games before the main event began as All Might sat silently in front of her, looking contemplative.

“Do you wish to know the truth? The truth behind this power?” All Might asked her quietly after some time. Ryouka glanced at him from the corner of her eyes and shrugged.

“Do you wish to tell me?”

All Might was silent for a while, but then his expression relaxed and he smiled at her.

“Yes,” he said with conviction. “You’re my friend, Ibuki-kun. I trust you.”

Before the embarrassment of being told something like that right to her face began to set in, All Might had went on and told her of the truth behind his Quirk and the tales of how he first met Midoriya. He told her about his bravery and the hard training he endured for 10 months to achieve his dreams.

…He sounded like a proud father who was bragging about his son.

“…and then during the entrance exam he couldn’t activate the Quirk at all. In the end, he didn’t get a single point, you know that?”

“Oh? And how did he make it then?” Ryouka quirked her eyebrow.

“He saved Young Uraraka from a Zero-Pointer and broke almost all of the bones in his body,” All Might said, chuckling lightly. “The judges all decided to grant him rescue points for his selflessness, and so he got the most rescue points out of all the other applicants.”

“Hmm… fascinating… so his habit of breaking his bones is you guys’ fault, huh…” Ryouka hummed before she smiled darkly at the No. 1 Hero, who gulped in fear and backed away from her vicinity.

“W-wait, Ibuki-kun…”

She didn’t let him get away, of course.

“Listen here, All Might,” Ryouka growled, clutching his tie on her hand tightly so he wouldn’t escape. “Stop rewarding him for his reckless act of self-destruction. He’s going to think that it’s a noble act and keep on doing it. Either you teach that boy to control his power or pay the consequences. Do you know how many times I’ve had to heal him during this past month?”

The man didn’t answer her and she pulled his necktie closer to her so she could bare her teeth at him menacingly.

“The answer is _way too damn many_ and it’s only been _one month_ since I worked here. I’m sick of having to heal him every time he used his power so you better teach him how to not destroy his body quickly,” she paused before she smiled sweetly at him. “Understand?”

Intimidated by her smile that promised retribution if he failed to do what she asked of him, the Hero frantically nodded his head.

“Y-yes, Ma’am.”

“Good.” She nodded imperiously. “Now… the recreational activities have ended. The first match is about to begin, are you not going to watch Midoriya fight?”

“Right! I’ll be leaving now.”

The Hero transformed back into his muscle form and quickly waved a goodbye at her before he hightailed out of her infirmary and she rolled her eyes at his act. Seriously, he had faced Villains a hundred times more menacing than she was and he still act like that around her.

Oh well.

Ryouka had been told that the third round was going to be a one-on-one match between the remaining competitors. It was bound to be brutal even if it was considered a ‘friendly’ match, considering their ambition to win and the destructive nature of most of their Quirks.

She sighed, knowing that she would have a lot of work after this.

Her eyes glanced towards the clock, seeing that it was already a little past 1 P.M.

Recovery Girl said that she would be back after lunch, didn’t she? Did she get into trouble at work? Ryouka checked her phone, not seeing any emergency call or text from the old lady and shrugged. Whatever, the matches are going to begin soon better prepare for her next round of snacks.

There was a bit of drama when a couple of students decided to forfeit because they didn’t remember winning the second round, but that matter was resolved quickly and at last the first match was going to begin.

It was Midoriya against someone called Shinsou Hitoshi.

All Might’s successor huh… it would be interesting to see how he would do in this kind of situation since she was too busy inwardly berating the reckless boy to pay attention to his fighting style during the incident at the USJ.

The match began, and almost immediately the boy angrily approached his opponent and—oh, he stopped.

Ryouka leaned forward in her seat, intrigued.

Present Mic was shouting commentaries in the background, but she tuned that out in favour of paying close attention to the boys. Shinsou appeared to tell Midoriya something, and just like that, the frozen Midoriya turned around and began to walk out towards the ring.

Ryouka sighed and leaned away from the monitor. Brainwashing huh. How unfortunate for Midoriya. Well, at least this will teach him that there were problems that couldn’t be solved through brute force alone.

Just as he was about to stepped outside the ring though, suddenly there was a gust of wind around the green haired boy and he stopped walking. Ryouka leaned forward again and saw that the boy had broken his own fingers to get out of the other boy’s control.

Her lip twitch in annoyance.

…He solved it with brute force…

The match ended quickly after that. Midoriya seemed to have an idea of how Shinsou’s Quirk act and used it to his advantage as he kept pushing the boy towards the edge of the ring. They seemed to argue about something and Shinsou punched Midoriya’s face, but in the end Midoriya’s strength win and he threw the other boy on his back.

“Shinsou is out of the ring!” Midnight announced loudly. “Midoriya moves on to the second round!”

Ryouka relaxed back onto her chair and sighed. That was fortunate for Midoriya, but All Might really should teach the boy better to use his power. Breaking his body in order to win was not a good plan in the long term.

Sighing, she texted Present Mic, telling him to tell the two boys to see her in the infirmary, which he announced immediately to the speakers as the crowd cheered and congratulate the two boys.

When Midoriya finally showed up, she scowled at him but didn’t say much because she had entrusted the job of scolding him to All Might. Instead, she scowled twice as intensely at the man who avoided her gaze with a sweat on his forehead.

She quickly wiped the blood off Midoriya’s face and gave him her Spring of Life, which made her feel lethargic afterwards. “You know broken bones took a while to mend, so take it easy during the next ten minutes or so,” Ryouka told him. “Don’t do anything reckless, you hear me?”

“Y-yes… thank you, Ibuki-senpai,” Midoriya said, nodding his head at her with a frown between his brows.

“What’s with the frown?” She asked as she cleaned up the dirty cotton balls she used to clean him. “You won didn’t you? Why don’t you smile a little?”

But her attempt to cheer him up clearly didn’t work as the boy only looked even more dejected than before. Midoriya glanced at her briefly and looked back down again to his clenched hands.

“But how could I possibly smile when…”

“Well… it must have been a hard battle for you, given what Young Shinsou was saying,” All Might said when his successor trailed off in the middle of his sentence.

“But even so… that didn't mean that I could lose. That's just what it means to aim for number one… right?” Midoriya murmured unsurely, looking at his mentor in askance, but All Might was being awkward again and shot a look that clearly screamed ‘ _help me!’_ at her.

Ryouka sighed, resisting the urge to massage her temples.

These two…

“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but try to look happier, okay? Don’t pity your opponent—he fought you with all he have. If you look like that, it’s like you’re looking down on his efforts,” Ryouka grouched at him.

When the boy only looked at her wide-eyed at her advice, she flicked her fingers at his forehead and narrowed her eyes at him. “Where’s your answer?”

“Y-yes, Ma’am!” Midoriya squeaked as he frantically nodded at her.

Satisfied, she nodded back at him. She was about to tell them to get the hell out of her infirmary when suddenly the boy shot up again.

“Oh right!” He exclaimed. “All Might… um, I had a vision…”

“Oh?” All Might asked, interested.

“Well, it concerned _it,_ you see…” Midoriya fumbled, glancing between her and All Might with a meaningful look.

All Might smiled at him reassuringly. “It’s alright, Young Midoriya, you can tell her. She knows.”

“Oh…!” Midoriya gasped, looking at her in surprise and she nodded, miming a lock with her fingers and her mouth. Midoriya smiled slightly at that before he went to explain his vision.

“Well, there were eight or nine people… I'm not sure exactly how many, but when it felt like my mind was filled with fog from the brainwashing, the vision appeared as if to drive the fog away,” Midoriya explained, frowning a bit. “And then I was able to barely move just my fingertips for a moment and…”

The boy paused, staring at his mentor. “There was someone that have your eyes too, All Might. Was it… something like the souls of the people who had inherited One For All?”

There was a brief silence before All Might snapped out of it.

“Scary…! What the heck?!” The Hero exclaimed, looking a bit pale.

“What? I thought you'd know about it!” Midoriya exclaimed back, surprised.

All Might coughed into his hand. “Well yes, I also saw it before in my younger days. It must be a sign that you've got a better grasp on One For All.”

Ryouka raised an eyebrow as Midoriya asked him, “What does that mean?”

“I think it's like a trace of something that was left behind in One For All,” All Might explained. “It's not something with intent that can interfere with you, and you can't interfere with them.”

“In other words, that vision isn't what got rid of the brainwashing. When you saw the vision, it was your strong emotions that allowed you to overcome Young Shinsou's Brainwashing just long enough for you to be able to move your fingertips, I think,” All Might finished with a thoughtful frown.

Midoriya bit his lower lip and muttered. “Somehow that explanation doesn't satisfy me at all though…”

“Well, don't dwell on it! Anyway, shouldn't you be worrying about your next opponent?!” All Might told him loudly and Midoriya jumped.

“Oh, right! Thank you both!”

He quickly left the infirmary to go to the stage area back to see the next match. When he was gone, Ryouka turned to a contemplative All Might and exhaled softly.

“Was it a bad thing that he saw you in that vision?” she asked him, and though his face looked grim, the man turned towards her and told her;

“No… it's a good thing.”

It should be a good thing, but the way he said it didn’t convince her at all. She frowned, looking at his frail back and shook her head, deciding to let it go. His condition was improving and he wasn’t in an immediate danger so she would let it go this time.

“I should be going too, Ibuki-kun. Thank you for treating him,” All Might smiled at her and changed back to his muscle form. Ryouka kept her narrowed eyes on him as he left, unsure if he was hiding something important from her.

She sighed tiredly.

Ah… she wanted to go home already.

 

 

 

 

After Midoriya was done and All Might left, the fluffy-haired boy that was Shinsou Hitoshi entered her domain reluctantly with a heavy frown between his brows.

When he did nothing and just stand in front of her, brooding, she sighed tiredly and ushered him to take a seat.

“Well, go on. Take off your shirt,” Ryouka told him after he sat down and he obediently did what she told him to do. The moment the shirt was off, she saw the beginning of a bruise littering his back. It wasn’t that bad now, but in a few hours it would be nasty.

“You're lucky that you only have these bruisings on your back,” Ryouka commented lightly as she examined Shinsou’s back. “Midoriya's pretty strong, you know? He could have easily broke your spine and kill you if he wasn't controlling his power correctly—I know he's still crap at controlling it since he only just got his Quirk recently.”

She couldn’t see the boy’s expression since he wasn’t facing her, but from the slightest twitch of his back, she could tell that he wasn’t expecting her words at all. The boy was silent for a while, before she heard him speak in a soft voice.

“…Only just got his Quirk?”

Ryouka raised an eyebrow at his question. “I thought that everyone knew that?” She thought the knowledge that the fact that Midoriya only recently ‘manifested’ his Quirk was common story since she knew how fast gossip usually travelled, but apparently not.

She shrugged even though he couldn’t see it. “Well… it's not my story to tell if you don't already know it, but ask him if you're curious. Pretty sure he would tell you everything you want to know,” she told him. “Anyway, I need you to take off your pants too.”

At her words, the boy jumped slightly and turned to face her, his eyes slightly wide in alarm and a faint blush on his cheeks.

“…Is that really necessary?” he asked her and she rolled her eyes at his question. _Teenagers._

“Oh, come on, don’t tell me you’re shy,” Ryouka huffed, ushering him to stand up. “The bruise is spreading quite low, you know. I have to treat it. Don’t worry, you can keep your underwear. I will need to tug it down a bit though.”

Obediently, the boy get up and removed his pants, leaving him only in his underwear. He looked awkward and pointedly refused to look at her, which made her roll her eyes again.

“I'm going to rub ointment on your bruises and compress it with a bandage, but I won't heal you since the injury isn't life threatening and you don't have any more matches for the day,” Ryouka explained to him as she went to the medicine cabinet to get the ointment. “But if it hurts that much, you can go see Recovery Girl once she came back.”

The boy nodded. “…Alright.”

She came back to him and motioned him to sit back down.

“Bear with this,” she said, opening the lid to the container and scooping out a generous amount of the balm before she spread them to the boy’s back. The boy winced a bit, but obediently stayed put as she did her job.

“But honestly though, what were you thinking riling him up like that? That was really reckless. You knew that he has a pretty dangerous Quirk. You literally _saw_ him using it during the cavalry battle. It's almost like you're asking for this to happen,” she berated the boy with a huff.

“I didn't!” The kid exclaimed, yelling at her before he caught himself and lowered his voice. “I don't, I just… I suppose I'm just venting my frustrations on him.”

Hearing his sombre tone, she knew she had made a mistake and had just unlocked his tragic backstory. Oh boy.

“I wanted to be a hero since I was a kid, but… with this Quirk of mine…” Shinsou began to talk, hunching his form a bit.

“People always said that I have a Villainous Quirk, that I could never be a Hero. After being discriminated throughout my childhood, seeing the unfairness of the entrance exam for Heroic Course just makes me so angry at those who were born with Quirks like his. They take everything for granted just because they were born with Quirks suitable for heroics.”

The boy grew tense as he muttered again in disdain. “…They don't understand what ordinary people like me are feeling.”

Ryouka couldn’t tell what expression he was making, but seeing his defensive form and hearing his words, Ryouka couldn’t help but feel a little irked at him. Sure, it was unfair, but seriously? Well, he was still a boy though, so she couldn’t blame him for thinking with his emotion. Teenagers were just like that.

Sighing inwardly, she decided to give him a lecture.

“Let me tell you something interesting, Fluffy-Hair,” she began as she took some compress from the cabinet, catching his attention. “Midoriya didn't destroy a single robot during the entrance exam. Not. A single. One.”

“…What?” Shinsou breathed out, disbelieve etched in his face.

Ryouka nodded at him as she went back to her chair with the compress in hand. “But he still got accepted to the Hero Course, as the second highest scoring student, in fact. Why do you think that is?”

The boy was frowning at her. “What are you saying?”

Hearing his unsure question, Ryouka huffed again.

“Tell me, what do you think a Hero does? Is it just beating up Villain?” She asked him back as she slapped on the bandage on his back. “While you're thinking about that, I want to ask you too—what have you done to realize your dream? Did you train your body to be stronger? Explore what you're capable of doing with your Quirk? Or did you just stay silent and do nothing while you cursed those who were born with better privilege than you?”

The boy’s eyes widened and he stood up angrily as he turned to face her.

“That's…!” he began, but he then he fell silent, no words coming out from his lips. He looked down in frustration, his hands clenching on the sides of his body. Seeing this, Ryouka felt sorry for being a little harsh on him. She sighed and tugged him down back to his chair.

“A piece of advice, before you blame others you have to look at your own self first, Fluffy,” Ryouka told him.

“I admit that the exam is biased since not all Quirks, although useful, are capable of destruction. Some of the teachers here even agree with me, but maybe that was the point of that exam in the first place,” she shrugged.

“Get creative, strive to do better. Help others, and maybe don't be selfish or self-depreciating and start to be grateful with what you have. You have to utilize your own potential to the fullest if you want to reach the top.”

The boy clenched his teeth in frustration. “But…”

“And don't make any excuses either,” Ryouka glared at him sternly and smacked the back of his head. “Own up to your mistakes, admit that you were wrong, and do better from now on.”

She huffed again when he fell silent. Good. Mull her words in that fluffy head of yours, young man. She knew he wasn’t stupid—he managed to get accepted to this ridiculous school, after all.

Wait, come to think of it, wasn’t Aizawa’s Quirk…

“You know what, I'll even tell you something good too since I'm feeling generous,” Ryouka said with a devious grin, getting an idea. “Like you, there's a teacher here whose Quirk is not suitable for destruction, yet he has one of the most effective and brutal fighting style that I've ever seen and could take out groups of Villains by himself in only seconds.”

Ryouka patted the last of the compress gently and the boy turned to face her again.

“Seek him out, and maybe if he sees potential in you, he'll be willing to share his knowledge with you,” she finished, proud at herself for being so wise.

“Someone like me…” the boy muttered, determination lighting up in his eyes.

Ryouka nodded.

“Yes, now put your clothes back on and get out. I only have so much patience for teenage angst today,” she huffed in mock impatience. “If your back got worse, get Recovery Girl to heal you.”

“Senpai…” Shinsou breathed out in gratitude before he bowed at her, still in his underwear. “Thank you for your advice.”

Ryouka rolled her eyes at him, but there was a smile on her face as she waved with her hand.

“Just scram out of here,” she told him and he nodded again before he left. Seeing the determined boy, she almost felt sorry for Aizawa for ushering the kid his way, but she had a feeling that the man would like him.

She wondered when the boy will realize he was still in his underwear though.

Oh well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied again, this Arc will end next chapter. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully. I don’t know though.
> 
> By the way, I have decided where I will end this story! It’ll happen in about 4 to 5 arcs I think, and I’ll tell you what, it’s going to be glorious. I can’t wait to write it. I hope I managed to write it as well as I imagined it in my head.
> 
> ALSO KINGDOM HEARTS III IS GOING TO BE RELEASED SOON I CAN’T BREATHE. It's 2 days after my birthday too, what a wonderful birthday present from SE!! I hope everything will be worth the long wait ♡♡

**Author's Note:**

> 【息吹】Ibuki used the character for breath and blow, while【涼佳】Ryouka used the character for refreshing/cool and beautiful/excellent. I picked this name with her Quirk in mind. I was going to use【癒夢】Yume (character for healing and dream) but Ryouka sounds prettier so there.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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